Meta Welcomes Türkiye Lifting Access Ban on Instagram

Instagram app is seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken, July 13, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Instagram app is seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken, July 13, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
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Meta Welcomes Türkiye Lifting Access Ban on Instagram

Instagram app is seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken, July 13, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Instagram app is seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken, July 13, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

Meta Platforms said on Tuesday that it welcomed Türkiye's reopening of access to its Instagram social media platform and that it continues to talk to Turkish authorities about content and accounts that violate its policies.

"We are pleased to see that Instagram is back up and running in Türkiye...We remain in dialogue with the authorities and will continue to take action on any violating content and accounts," a Meta spokesperson said in a statement, Reuters reported.

"This includes removing content that violates our Dangerous Organizations & Individuals policy and applying newsworthy allowances where appropriate," the spokesperson said.

Türkiye restored access to Instagram on Saturday following a nine-day block, after Ankara said the US company agreed to cooperate with authorities to address the government's concerns.

Türkiye blocked access to the platform on Aug. 2 for failing to comply with the country's "laws and rules".

The ban came after a top Turkish official accused the platform of blocking posts expressing condolences over the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, a leader of Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The ban triggered protests from users and small businesses, who reach their customers through the platform.

On Monday, a court in the city of Izmir ordered the arrest of a woman on charges of inciting hatred and insulting the president after she criticized the Instagram ban, broadcaster Haberturk and other media said.

Meta says that the company has not changed policies but agreed to review the accuracy of actions taken regarding policy-violating content and accounts in Türkiye in the days following Haniyeh's death.

It said that it applied newsworthy allowances to content posted by Turkish politicians as per its standard approach. Meta allows policy-violating content to be visible if it is newsworthy, or in the public interest.

Türkiye ranks fifth in the world in terms of Instagram usage, with more than 57 million users, following India, the United States, Brazil and Indonesia, according to data platform Statista.



Microsoft 365 Down for Thousands of Users, Downdetector Shows

General view of Microsoft Corporation headquarters at Issy-les-Moulineaux, near Paris, France, April 18, 2016. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo
General view of Microsoft Corporation headquarters at Issy-les-Moulineaux, near Paris, France, April 18, 2016. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo
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Microsoft 365 Down for Thousands of Users, Downdetector Shows

General view of Microsoft Corporation headquarters at Issy-les-Moulineaux, near Paris, France, April 18, 2016. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo
General view of Microsoft Corporation headquarters at Issy-les-Moulineaux, near Paris, France, April 18, 2016. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo

Microsoft's (MSFT.O), suite of productivity software was down for more than 16,000 users on Thursday, according to outage tracking website Downdetector.com.

This comes nearly two months after a faulty software update from cybersecurity services provider CrowdStrike (CRWD.O), affected nearly 8.5 million Windows devices, crippling operations across industries ranging from airlines and banks to healthcare, according to Reuters.

"We're investigating an issue where users may be unable to access multiple Microsoft 365 services," the Windows parent said in a post on X.

Microsoft did not immediately respond to queries on the nature and cause of the outage and when it expects a recovery, but its Azure cloud platform said on X it was probing customer reports of a potential issue connecting Microsoft's services from AT&T (T.N), networks.

The telecom operator did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

After the incident reports peaked at around 23,000 for Microsoft 365, there were signs of the issues ebbing. Some users on social media said Microsoft's services were up and running.

About 4,000 users reported issues with AT&T services and more than 16,500 said they had trouble accessing Microsoft's 365 products, as of 9:12 A.M. ET, according to Downdetector, which tracks outages by collating status reports from a number of sources, including user-submitted errors on its platform.