Defense of Instagram officials who met with Minister Uraloğlu revealed

Access to Instagram in Turkey was blocked on August 2 by a decision of the BTK.

On the third day of the Instagram ban, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloğlu met with META officials yesterday (August 5).

Uraloğlu said, "We have not yet achieved the result we want; we are monitoring the situation and are in active discussions."

In addition to Uraloğlu, Deputy Minister Ömer Fatih Sayan and officials from the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) also attended the meeting.

During the meeting, warnings were issued to META regarding catalog crimes and content contrary to societal sensitivities, as well as the condolence messages published for Hamas Political Bureau Chief Ismail Haniyeh.

"THE ALGORITHM BLOCKS IT BECAUSE THE US VIEWS IT AS A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION"

According to a report by Meltem Güneş from Milliyet, META officials argued that the US recognizes Hamas as a terrorist organization and that posts are being blocked by algorithms.

"THEN BLOCK THE PKK, PYD, AND FETÖ AS WELL"

The delegation led by Uraloğlu stated that messages of support for the PKK, PYD, and FETÖ—which are on Turkey's list of terrorist organizations—should also be blocked by algorithms. META gave the green light to this request regarding the PKK.

"LIST OF CONTENT SUBMITTED TO THE COMPANY"

The list of content that Turkey has requested to be removed from the platform has been submitted to the company. However, there was a disagreement regarding the definition of terrorism.

WHAT HAD HAPPENED?

Communications Director Fahrettin Altun stated that the condolence messages he shared following the assassination of Hamas Political Bureau Chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran were censored by Instagram.

Shortly after this statement by Altun, the BTK imposed an access ban on Instagram on Friday, August 2, at 03:00.