Instagram turns 14, though controversies over censorship plague platform’s credibility

By Mertkan Oruc

ANKARA (AA) – Instagram, with 2 billion active monthly users, turns 14 on Sunday, though controversies over political censorship, particularly the alleged deletion of posts supporting the Palestinian cause, have plagued the platform’s credibility, in addition to multiple lawsuits filed against it.

Among one of the world’s most popular social media platforms, Instagram launched a series of new features on February 9, one of which restricts the sharing of certain political content.

This feature, which was activated against users' will, is thought to have been implemented in advance of the US presidential elections to combat disinformation, although it has allegedly been used to limit access to information about people's support for Palestinians amid the heavy bombardment of Gaza, which claimed nearly 42,000 lives in a single year.

Turkish authorities confronted the Meta-owned platform on August 2, when the government blocked access to Instagram due to the detection of catalog crimes -- which are defined as acts of murder, sexual assault, and other felonies in Turkish law -- being published on the platform.

Instagram was made available in Türkiye on August 10 following negotiations, as company officials promised to meet Turkish demands.

In 2022, the Turkish Competition Board fined US-based Meta Platforms $18.6 million for combining data collection from its other platforms, namely Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, as well as blocking advertising competition and maintaining a dominant position in the social media market.

Meta Platforms was fined each passing day during the period given by the Turkish Competition Board to correct the violation it found, with the total fine exceeding $26 million (not adjusted for inflation).

- Meta, Instagram face multiple lawsuits

Meta Platforms has faced multiple lawsuits in different countries, the most recent being a $5 billion lawsuit filed on behalf of a 13-year-old girl in the US due to Instagram’s addictive features.

In 2023, 41 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit alleging that Meta Platforms was exploiting the addictive nature of social media to endanger the mental health of youth.
Meta was once again fined $99.9 million by the Irish Data Protection Commission for failing to protect user password data under the country’s legislation.

Following these developments, Instagram launched the Teen Accounts, a restrictive type of account with parental controls designed for children and young people.

- Instagram’s history

Instagram was founded on Oct. 6, 2010, by Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom, and the social media platform was downloaded by 25,000 users on its first day, quickly growing to 1 million users in less than three months.

Apple named Instagram the app of the year in 2012, and the Android version of Instagram was released in the same year. Only 18 months after its inception, Instagram was acquired by Facebook for $1 billion.

Instagram enabled ad-sponsored sharing on its platform in 2013, and ad revenue soared to $3 billion in just three years.

Today, Instagram’s brand value is estimated to be $70 billion, while Meta Platforms’ market value exceeds $1.4 trillion.

In the first half of 2023, Instagram's fashion, lifestyle, and beauty brands generated $16.9 billion.

*Writing by Emir Yildirim in Istanbul