The Turkish government on Monday called officials from Instagram to a meeting, four days after blocking the social media platform for unspecified reasons, Agence France-Presse reported.
Instagram, which has been suspended in Turkey since Friday, has been accused by the authorities both of censorship and of failing to remove posts the authorities deemed offensive.
The freeze has harmed business for telecom operators and vendors who sell goods via the platform.
Private television channel NTV said the Turkey representatives of the platform, which is owned by Facebook parent Meta, would meet with Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu at 1:00 pm (1000 GMT).
“We will meet with them this afternoon. We hope they will do what’s necessary to respond to our demands. We’re hoping for positive developments,” Uraloğlu said on X.
Katalog suçları çerçevesinde uyguladığı politikalar karşısında erişim engeli getirdiğimiz sosyal medya platformu Instagram yetkilileri ile geçtiğimiz hafta bir görüşme yapıldı.
Gerçekleştirilen görüşmede; Türkiye Cumhuriyeti kanunlarına uyulması konusunda hassasiyetlerimiz…
— Abdulkadir URALOĞLU (@a_uraloglu) August 5, 2024
The minister said he had blocked access to Instagram because of “content-related offenses,” without giving details.
“Last week there was a meeting with representatives of the platform, in which we set out our views on respect for Turkish laws,” he said.
For many Turkish businesses, Monday’s meeting cannot come soon enough.
An estimated 50 to 60 million of Turkey’s 85 million inhabitants subscribe to Instagram, which serves as a platform for a wide range of commercial activities.
This is not the first time that Turkish authorities have temporarily blocked access to social media sites, including Facebook, X and Wikipedia.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government is regularly accused of muzzling freedom of expression.