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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
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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.

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China Trials Cargo Drones, Air Taxis as Low-altitude Economy Gains Speed

An unmanned cargo aircraft developed by Sichuan Tengden Sci-tech Innovation Co. takes part in a maiden flight at an airport in Zigong, Sichuan province, China August 11, 2024. China Daily via REUTERS
An unmanned cargo aircraft developed by Sichuan Tengden Sci-tech Innovation Co. takes part in a maiden flight at an airport in Zigong, Sichuan province, China August 11, 2024. China Daily via REUTERS
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China Trials Cargo Drones, Air Taxis as Low-altitude Economy Gains Speed

An unmanned cargo aircraft developed by Sichuan Tengden Sci-tech Innovation Co. takes part in a maiden flight at an airport in Zigong, Sichuan province, China August 11, 2024. China Daily via REUTERS
An unmanned cargo aircraft developed by Sichuan Tengden Sci-tech Innovation Co. takes part in a maiden flight at an airport in Zigong, Sichuan province, China August 11, 2024. China Daily via REUTERS

Engineers sent China's biggest-yet cargo drone on a test run over the weekend while a helicopter taxi took to the skies on a soon-to-open 100-km (62-mile) route to Shanghai, laying new milestones for the country's expanding low-altitude economy.
Packing a payload capacity of 2 metric tons, the twin-engine cargo drone developed by state-funded Sichuan Tengden Sci-tech Innovation Co took off in southwestern Sichuan province on Sunday for its inaugural flight that lasted approximately 20 minutes, state media reported.
The Tengden-built drone, with a wingspan of 16.1 m (52.8 ft) and a height of 4.6 m (15 ft), is slightly larger than the world's most popular light aircraft, the four-seat Cessna 172, Reuters said.
Manufacturers in the world's top drone-making nation are testing ever larger payloads while transport companies are planning air taxi services both manned and unmanned as China loosens airspace curbs and grants incentives to build up a low-altitude economy. Its aviation regulator foresees a 2-trillion-yuan ($279-billion) industry by 2030, for a four-fold expansion from 2023.
The Tengden trial run followed the maiden flight in June of a cargo drone developed by state-owned Aviation Industry Corp of China (AVIC), the leading aerospace enterprise.
The AVIC's HH-100 has a payload capacity of 700 kg (1,543 pounds) and a flight radius of 520 km. Next year, AVIC plans to test its biggest cargo drone, the TP2000, which can carry up to 2 tons of cargo and fly four times farther than the HH-100.
China has already begun commercial deliveries by drone.
In May, cargo drone firm Phoenix Wings, part of delivery giant SF Express, started delivering fresh fruit from the island province of Hainan to southern Guangdong using Fengzhou-90 drones developed by SF, a unit of S.F. Holding.
Cargo drones promise shorter delivery times and lower transport costs, Chinese industry insiders say, while widening deliveries to sites lacking conventional aviation facilities, such as rooftop spaces in heavily built-up cities.
They could also ferry people on taxi services.
In April, aviation authorities issued a production certificate to unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) maker EHang Holdings, based in the southern city of Guangzhou, for its passenger-carrying drone, China's first such certification for an autonomous passenger drone.
In a report this year, the government identified the low-altitude economy as a new growth engine for the first time, with vertical mobility seen as a "new productive force" in areas such as passenger and cargo transport.
On Saturday, a manned commercial passenger helicopter took off for the first time from Kunshun, a city in Jiangsu province, to Shanghai Pudong Airport, state media said.
For one-way fares of up to 1,800 yuan, Shanghai NewSky Heli Co aims to cut travel time between the cities to 20 minutes from several hours. As many as 30,000 passengers a year are forecast to use the route, which opens on Aug. 18.
Shanghai aims to expand low-altitude routes to cover other cities in the Yangtze River delta.