A Turkish court on Monday ordered the arrest of a woman accused of inciting hatred and insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after that he criticized the ban of the social media platform Instagram, broadcaster Habertürk and other media reported.
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Turkey blocked access to Instagram on August 2 for failing to comply with its “laws and regulations” and public sensitivities. The government lifted the ban on Saturday, after it said the Meta Platforms-owned app agreed to cooperate with authorities to address the government’s concerns.
In an interview posted on the YouTube channel last week, when the app was still blocked, the woman was one of several passersby asked what they thought about the ban.
“This is wrong. The president cannot ban Instagram as he pleases,” said the woman, who also criticised President Erdogan and those who supported the ban.
Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the arrest.
Monday’s arrest, ordered by a local court in the western city of Izmir, came after the head of Turkey’s broadcast watchdog RTUK, criticize the street interviews broadcast on social networks, saying that they “manipulate public opinion.”
The ban on Instagram came after a senior Turkish official accused the social media platform of blocking posts expressing condolences over the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Meta welcomes Türkiye lifting ban on Instagram
Meta Platforms said on Tuesday it welcomed Turkey’s reopening of access to its social media platform Instagram and that it continues to speak with Turkish authorities about content and accounts that violate its policies.
“We are pleased to see Instagram back up and running in Turkey… We remain in dialogue with authorities and will continue to take action on any violating content and accounts,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. “This includes removing content that violates our Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy and applying newsworthy assignments where appropriate,” the spokesperson said.
Turkey restored access to Instagram on Saturday after a nine-day blockade, after Ankara said the US company agreed to cooperate with authorities to address concerns of the government.
The ban came after a senior Turkish official accused the platform of blocking posts expressing condolences for the murder of Ismail Haniyehleader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The ban sparked protests from users and small businesses that reach their customers through the platform.
It said it applied newsworthiness allowances to content posted by Turkish politicians as per its standard approach. Meta allows content that violates policies to be visible if it is newsworthy or in the public interest. Türkiye ranks fifth in the world in terms of Instagram usagewith more than 57 million users, after India, the United States, Brazil and Indonesia, according to the data platform Statista.
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