Judging from officials’ comments, it was either because Instagram wasn’t censoring enough content or because it was censoring too much. Erdogan’s (pic) communications director complained that Instagram was ‘preventing people from publishing messages of condolence’ for slain Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh. — Reuters
This is a dizzying time for anyone who follows the subject of online censorship by authoritarian regimes.
The latest story on that front is Turkey’s decision over the weekend to stop blocking Instagram, which it did for nine days. The reasons for the short-lived ban were never entirely clear.
Judging from officials’ comments, it was either because Instagram wasn’t censoring enough content (it apparently didn’t take down posts insulting Turkish founding father Kemal Ataturk or referencing “gambling, drugs and abuse of children”) or because it was censoring too much (President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s communications director complained that Instagram was “preventing people from publishing messages of condolence” for slain Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh).
Either way, the Turkish government claims the Meta-owned photo site has now “promised to work jointly on posts related to catalog crimes and censorship”. I’ve asked Meta to explain how it’s now going to meet the government’s demands; no answer yet. By the way, the video game platform Roblox remains blocked in Turkey, which nixed it last week in the name of child protection.
Meanwhile, Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro has suspended access to X, following his likely-bogus claim of victory in the country’s recent election. (No word yet on whether Maduro and X proprietor Elon Musk will engage in a cage fight that Maduro proposed, with Musk accepting.)
But Caracas has also blocked Signal, the encrypted messaging app. And so too has Moscow, which is scrambling to ramp up censorship following Ukraine’s military incursion into the Russian province of Kursk. The Russian online censor Roskomnadzor said the Signal blockage, which followed reported restrictions on YouTube access, was necessary “to prevent terrorism and extremism”.
Signal said Saturday that it was aware of blockages in several countries, and offered instructions for those who want to set up proxy servers so people there can bypass the censorship. The endless cat-and-mouse game continues. – Fortune.com/The New York Times
