Meta welcomes Turkey lifting access ban on Instagram, spokesperson says

ISTANBUL (Reuters) -Meta Platforms said on Tuesday that it welcomed Turkey'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 Turkey...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.

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

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

Turkey 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 criticised 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 Turkey 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.

Turkey 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.

(Reporting by Ezgi Erkoyun;Editing by Daren Butler and Sharon Singleton)