ISTANBUL: Turkiye said on Saturday it had restored access to social media platform Instagram after the company agreed to cooperate with authorities to address the government’s concerns.
Turkiye blocked access to the social media platform on Aug 2 for failing to comply with the country’s “laws and rules” and public sensitivities.
A top Turkish official accused Instagram of blocking condolence posts over the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Turkiye has denounced Israel’s attacks on Gaza, called for an immediate ceasefire and criticized what it calls unconditional support for Israel by the West.
The nine-day ban triggered protests from users and small businesses who reach their customers through the platform.
Turkiye 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.
“As a result of our negotiations with Instagram officials, we will lift the access block...after they promised to work together to meet our demands regarding catalog crimes and on censorship imposed on users,” Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said in a post on X.
Catalog crimes in Turkish law include acts such as murder, sexual assault, drug trafficking, abuse and torture.
“Significant gains have been achieved in increasing security in the digital environment in Turkiye, legal compliance, protection of user rights and the development of a fair inspection mechanism,” Uraloglu said.
Instagram parent Meta had agreed to comply with Turkish law and ensure efficient removal of posts and content if they carry elements of certain crimes or “terrorism propaganda,” Uraloglu said.
Instagram was not immediately available for comment when contacted by Reuters.
“Live metrics show Instagram is being restored across Turkiye’s main Internet providers after national restriction spanning nine days. This is the country’s longest ban of a major social media platform in recent years,” Internet monitor NetBlocks said.
Turkiye restores access to Instagram after 9-day block
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Turkiye restores access to Instagram after 9-day block
- Turkiye ranks fifth in the world in terms of Instagram usage, with more than 57 million users
Apple heads into annual showcase reeling from AI missteps, tech upheaval and Trump’s trade war
- The pre-summer rite is expected be more subdued than the feverish anticipation that surrounded the event in 2023 when Apple unveiled a mixed-reality headset
- Now Apple is facing nagging questions about its ability to innovate and ability to navigate a gauntlet of other challenges as it heads into this year’s World Wide Developers Conference
CUP: After stumbling out of the starting gate in Big Tech’s pivotal race to capitalize on artificial intelligence, Apple will try to regain its footing Monday at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference.
The pre-summer rite, which attracts thousands of developers to Apple’s Silicon Valley headquarters, is expected to be more subdued than the feverish anticipation that surrounded the event during the previous two years.
In 2023, Apple unveiled a mixed-reality headset that has been little more than a niche product, and last year WWDC trumpeted its first major foray into the AI craze with an array of new features highlighted by the promise of a smarter and more versatile version of its virtual assistant, Siri.
But heading into this year’s showcase, Apple faces nagging questions about whether the nearly 50-year-old company has lost some of the mystique and innovative drive that turned it into a tech trendsetter. Instead of making a big splash as it did with the Vision Pro headset, Apple this year is expected to focus on an overhaul of its software that may include a new, more tactile look for the iPhone’s native apps and a new nomenclature for identifying its operating system updates.
Even though it might look like Apple is becoming a technological laggard, Forrester Research analyst Thomas Husson contends the company still has ample time to catch up in an AI race that’s “more of a marathon, than a sprint. It will force Apple to evolve its operating systems.”
If reports about its iOS naming scheme pan out, Apple will switch to a method that automakers have used to telegraph their latest car models by linking them to the year after they first arrive at dealerships. That would mean the next version of the iPhone operating system due out this autumn will be known as iOS 26 instead of iOS 19 — as it would be under the current sequential naming approach.
Whatever it’s named, the next iOS will likely be released as a free update in September, around the same time as the next iPhone models if Apple follows its usual road map.
Meanwhile, Apple’s references to AI may be less frequent than last year when the technology was the main attraction.
While some of the new AI tricks compatible with the latest iPhones began rolling out late last year as part of free software updates, Apple still hasn’t been able to soup up Siri in the ways that it touted at last year’s conference. The delays became so glaring that a chastened Apple retreated from promoting Siri in its AI marketing campaigns earlier this year.
“It’s just taking a bit longer than we thought,” Apple CEO Tim Cook told analysts last month when asked about the company’s headaches with Siri. “But we are making progress, and we’re extremely excited to get the more personal Siri features out there.”
While Apple has been struggling to make AI that meets its standards, the gap separating it from other tech powerhouses is widening. Google keeps packing more AI into its Pixel smartphone lineup while introducing more of the technology into its search engine to dramatically change the way it works. Samsung, Apple’s biggest smartphone rival, is also leaning heavily into AI. Meanwhile, ChatGPT recently struck a deal that will bring former Apple design guru Jony Ive into the fold to work on a new device expected to compete against the iPhone.
“While much of WWDC will be about what the next great thing is for the iPhone, the unspoken question is: What’s the next great thing after the iPhone?” said Dipanjan Chatterjee, another analyst for Forrester Research.
Besides facing innovation challenges, Apple also faces regulatory threats that could siphon away billions of dollars in revenue that help finance its research and development. A federal judge is currently weighing whether proposed countermeasures to Google’s illegal monopoly in search should include a ban on long-running deals worth $20 billion annually to Apple while another federal judge recently banned the company from collecting commission on in-app transactions processed outside its once-exclusive payment system.
On top of all that, Apple has been caught in the cross-hairs of President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, a key manufacturing hub for the Cupertino, California, company. Cook successfully persuaded Trump to exempt the iPhone from tariffs during the president’s first administration, but he has had less success during Trump’s second term, which seems more determined to prod Apple to make its products in the US.
“The trade war and uncertainty linked to the tariff policy is of much more concern today for Apple’s business than the perception that Apple is lagging behind on AI innovation,” Husson said.
The multi-dimensional gauntlet facing Apple is spooking investors, causing the company’s stock price to plunge by nearly 20 percent so far this year — a decline that has erased $750 billion in shareholder wealth. After beginning the year as the most valuable company in the world, Apple now ranks third behind long-time rival Microsoft, another AI leader, and AI chipmaker Nvidia.
Chinese hackers and user lapses turn smartphones into a ‘mobile security crisis’
- Groups linked to China’s intel service have targeted the smartphones of smartphones belonging to people who worked in government, politics, tech and journalisms, according to national security and tech experts
WASHINGTON: Cybersecurity investigators noticed a highly unusual software crash — it was affecting a small number of smartphones belonging to people who worked in government, politics, tech and journalism.
The crashes, which began late last year and carried into 2025, were the tipoff to a sophisticated cyberattack that may have allowed hackers to infiltrate a phone without a single click from the user.
The attackers left no clues about their identities, but investigators at the cybersecurity firm iVerify noticed that the victims all had something in common: They worked in fields of interest to China’s government and had been targeted by Chinese hackers in the past.
Foreign hackers have increasingly identified smartphones, other mobile devices and the apps they use as a weak link in US cyberdefenses. Groups linked to China’s military and intelligence service have targeted the smartphones of prominent Americans and burrowed deep into telecommunication networks, according to national security and tech experts.
It shows how vulnerable mobile devices and apps are and the risk that security failures could expose sensitive information or leave American interests open to cyberattack, those experts say.
“The world is in a mobile security crisis right now,” said Rocky Cole, a former cybersecurity expert at the National Security Agency and Google and now chief operations officer at iVerify. “No one is watching the phones.”
US zeroes in on China as a threat, and Beijing levels its own accusations
US authorities warned in December of a sprawling Chinese hacking campaign designed to gain access to the texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans.
“They were able to listen in on phone calls in real time and able to read text messages,” said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois. He is a member of the House Intelligence Committee and the senior Democrat on the Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, created to study the geopolitical threat from China.
Chinese hackers also sought access to phones used by Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance during the 2024 campaign.
The Chinese government has denied allegations of cyberespionage, and accused the US of mounting its own cyberoperations. It says America cites national security as an excuse to issue sanctions against Chinese organizations and keep Chinese technology companies from the global market.
“The US has long been using all kinds of despicable methods to steal other countries’ secrets,” Lin Jian, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, said at a recent press conference in response to questions about a CIA push to recruit Chinese informants.
US intelligence officials have said China poses a significant, persistent threat to US economic and political interests, and it has harnessed the tools of digital conflict: online propaganda and disinformation, artificial intelligence and cyber surveillance and espionage designed to deliver a significant advantage in any military conflict.
Mobile networks are a top concern. The US and many of its closest allies have banned Chinese telecom companies from their networks. Other countries, including Germany, are phasing out Chinese involvement because of security concerns. But Chinese tech firms remain a big part of the systems in many nations, giving state-controlled companies a global footprint they could exploit for cyberattacks, experts say.
Chinese telecom firms still maintain some routing and cloud storage systems in the US — a growing concern to lawmakers.
“The American people deserve to know if Beijing is quietly using state-owned firms to infiltrate our critical infrastructure,” US Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Michigan and chairman of the China committee, which in April issued subpoenas to Chinese telecom companies seeking information about their US operations.
Mobile devices have become an intel treasure trove
Mobile devices can buy stocks, launch drones and run power plants. Their proliferation has often outpaced their security.
The phones of top government officials are especially valuable, containing sensitive government information, passwords and an insider’s glimpse into policy discussions and decision-making.
The White House said last week that someone impersonating Susie Wiles, Trump’s chief of staff, reached out to governors, senators and business leaders with texts and phone calls.
It’s unclear how the person obtained Wiles’ connections, but they apparently gained access to the contacts in her personal cellphone, The Wall Street Journal reported. The messages and calls were not coming from Wiles’ number, the newspaper reported.
While most smartphones and tablets come with robust security, apps and connected devices often lack these protections or the regular software updates needed to stay ahead of new threats. That makes every fitness tracker, baby monitor or smart appliance another potential foothold for hackers looking to penetrate networks, retrieve information or infect systems with malware.
Federal officials launched a program this year creating a “cyber trust mark” for connected devices that meet federal security standards. But consumers and officials shouldn’t lower their guard, said Snehal Antani, former chief technology officer for the Pentagon’s Joint Special Operations Command.
“They’re finding backdoors in Barbie dolls,” said Antani, now CEO of Horizon3.ai, a cybersecurity firm, referring to concerns from researchers who successfully hacked the microphone of a digitally connected version of the toy.
Risks emerge when smartphone users don’t take precautions
It doesn’t matter how secure a mobile device is if the user doesn’t follow basic security precautions, especially if their device contains classified or sensitive information, experts say.
Mike Waltz, who departed as Trump’s national security adviser, inadvertently added The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief to a Signal chat used to discuss military plans with other top officials.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had an Internet connection that bypassed the Pentagon’s security protocols set up in his office so he could use the Signal messaging app on a personal computer, the AP has reported.
Hegseth has rejected assertions that he shared classified information on Signal, a popular encrypted messaging app not approved for the use of communicating classified information.
China and other nations will try to take advantage of such lapses, and national security officials must take steps to prevent them from recurring, said Michael Williams, a national security expert at Syracuse University.
“They all have access to a variety of secure communications platforms,” Williams said. “We just can’t share things willy-nilly.”
Top TikToker Khaby Lame detained by US immigration
- Lame holds top spot on the wildly popular TikTok social media app, with 162.2 million followers and has risen to fame for his short silent videos mocking the convoluted tutorials and tips that abound on the Internet
- Since taking power in January, US President Donald Trump has delivered on campaign promises to tighten immigration controls and carry out a mass deportation drive — aspects of which have been challenged in US courts
LOS ANGELES, United States: US immigration agents detained and later allowed the “voluntary departure” of the world’s most-followed TikToker, Khaby Lame, after he “overstayed” his visa, authorities said Saturday.
“US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained Seringe Khabane Lame, 25, a citizen of Italy, June 6, at the Harry Reid International Airport, Las Vegas, Nevada for immigration violations,” the agency said in a statement to AFP.
Lame entered the United States on April 30 and “overstayed the terms of his visa,” the statement said of the Friday detention, adding that he was released the same day.
The Italian national, who is a UNICEF goodwill ambassador and has a following of more than 162 million on TikTok, “has since departed the US.”
Lame had not immediately posted publicly about the incident as of Saturday afternoon.
Since taking power in January, US President Donald Trump has delivered on campaign promises to tighten immigration controls and carry out a mass deportation drive — aspects of which have been challenged in US courts.
Lame holds top spot on the wildly popular TikTok social media app, with 162.2 million followers and has risen to fame for his short silent videos mocking the convoluted tutorials and tips that abound on the Internet.
He punctuates his videos with a trademark gesture — palms turned toward the sky, accompanied by a knowing smile and wide eyes — as he offers his own simple remedies.
The idea for his content came to him while wandering around the housing project where his family lived in Chivasso, near Turin, after losing his factory mechanic’s job in March 2020.
His posts took off — helping him gross an estimated $16.5 million through marketing deals with companies in the period between June 2022 and September 2023, according to Forbes.
Israeli army admits to Gaza strike
- Admission comes following investigation by BBC Verify
DUBAI: The Israeli military has admitted to the BBC that it conducted a strike on the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, which reportedly killed at least one Palestinian and injured 30 others.
The attack took place on Sunday, soon after an incident near a new aid distribution center in Rafah.
BBC’s fact-checking unit, Verify, was analyzing footage of the Rafah incident when it identified a separate strike in nearby Khan Younis.
Initially thought to be linked to the Rafah incident, BBC Verify geolocated the footage to Khan Younis, 4.5 km from the aid distribution site.
The Khan Younis blast had not been announced by the IDF, which regularly publishes operational updates online.
When BBC Verify approached the Israeli military, it admitted it had carried out an artillery strike and said the incident was the result of “technical and operational errors.”
Troops had fired toward a specific target but the artillery deviated and “wrongfully hit the Mawasi area” in Khan Younis, the military said, without providing any evidence to support its claims.
The blast took place in an area where displaced Palestinians had been sheltering. The footage showed bloodied bodies surrounded by dust clouds, BBC said. Women and children could be seen running and screaming as they watched injured people being carried away.
The broadcaster emphasized the rarity of the Israeli military acknowledging errors. BBC Verify’s analysis of its official Telegram account identified four previous instances where it admitted to mistakes or technical and operational errors related to the war in Gaza.
Israeli strike on Gaza hospital kills three journalists
- Committee to Protect Journalists denounces attack on Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital courtyard
LONDON: Three journalists were killed and four others injured in an Israeli strike on Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital’s courtyard in central Gaza, drawing condemnations from media rights groups.
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said the attack struck a media tent and identified the victims as Ismail Badah, a cameraman for Palestine Today TV channel, which is affiliated with the Islamic Jihad militant group; Soliman Hajaj, a Palestine Today editor; and Samir A-Refai of the Shams News network.
The strike injured 30 others, including four journalists. Among them were Imad Daloul, a correspondent for Palestine Today, and Ahmed Qalja, a cameraman for Qatar-based Al-Araby TV, both are reported to be in critical condition.
The syndicate accused Israel of “a full-fledged war crime” that “reflects a deliberate and systematic policy aimed at silencing the Palestinian narrative.” It said that targeting journalists “within the grounds of a hospital constitutes a grave violation of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions.”
The Israeli military said in a statement that the strike targeted “an Islamic Jihad terrorist who was operating in a command-and-control center” in the hospital’s yard, without providing details or evidence.
In a statement on Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the attack, calling for international action to stop Israel from targeting journalists “based on unsubstantiated terrorism claims.”
CPJ regional director Sara Qudah said: “These are not isolated incidents, but systematic attacks by Israel on the media. This disturbing and deliberate pattern must end.
“The killing of journalists in a hospital courtyard on the holy day of Yawm Al-Arafah — preceding Eid Al-Adha — underscores the relentless dangers facing the media in Gaza.”
