Were you aware that there are countries that have banned Instagram? Most of us don’t really give much thought to this. But, Instagram isn’t actually available to everyone in the world. As a matter of fact, there are entire countries that have never even heard about Instagram before.
Of course, there are also countries where Instagram used to work normally. At least, until it was banned. Today we are going to go over 3 countries that decided to ban the photo-sharing platform, and their reasons.
North Korea
The first country to have banned Instagram on our list is North Korea. As a matter of fact, the photo-sharing app is within the country sites’ blacklist. But, the truth is that this isn’t really much of a surprise. You see, the East Asian country prohibits its citizens to pretty much using anything that was created in a different country.
But, that’s not all. When someone tries to access Instagram in North Korea, a pop-up message appears indicating the site is blacklisted because it contains “harmful content.” Finally, most North Korean citizens have never even heard the word Instagram. So, they don’t really know what it is.
Those who do know what Instagram stands for, however, learned about it from the very few tourists that visit the country.
Iran
Iran is the second country on our list to have banned Instagram for good. The Iranian government ordered internet providers to block access to Instagram in January 2019.
But, this is not the first time something like this has happened. Iran has actually banned other social media platforms before. Among them are YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. According to the Iranian government, all 4 social media sites were being used to spread anti-government messages.
So, they opted to restrict access to all of the sites for good. But, here’s what’s funny. Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani actually has over 2 million followers on his Instagram account. It’s such a pity he’s no longer going to be able to use it.
China
China decided to restrict access to Instagram back in 2014. And the reason has to do with democracy. You see, the Asian country is governed by the “Communist Party of China.” So, they don’t really like it when their citizens are influenced by foreign ideas. In fact, the country has what we know as “The Great Firewall of China”.
This refers to a combination of legislative actions and technologies created to regulate the Internet domestically. Instagram was the only site that had not been included in the Great Firewall of China.
But, the government decided to ban the app after a pro-democracy protest took place in Hong Kong in 2014. The fact of the matter is that they didn’t want their citizens to share photos of their revelation.
