Instagram has been blocked in China since 2014, in Russia since March 2022 and in Iran since the protests of September 2022. Turkey and Nepal have cut it off for days at a time, and Myanmar’s military has ordered it blocked.
Every day we open Instagram from inside 24 countries, mostly over home broadband, and record
where it’s blocked, since when and how.
3 of 24tested countries with a confirmed block of Instagram
Blocked in China, Iran and Russia. 24 of 24 results confirmed in the last 48 hours.
Blocked means the networks we test there failed to open www.instagram.com, twice, while it opened elsewhere.
“Turned away by the site” means Instagram itself refused visitors from that country.
* First observed on this date: the block may be older. Older results are excluded from current totals.
Background
Where Instagram is restricted, and why
China blocked Instagram in late September 2014, as photos of the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong spread on the app, and Freedom House still listed it among the platforms blocked there in 2024. Iran, which blocked Facebook and Twitter in 2009, left Instagram open until September 2022, when it was blocked during the nationwide protests that followed a young woman’s death in custody. When Iran decided to lift its bans on WhatsApp and Google Play in December 2024, Instagram stayed blocked.
Russia blocked Instagram on 14 March 2022, at the Prosecutor General’s demand, saying it spread calls for violence against Russians, including soldiers, after Meta relaxed its rules for users in some countries. A Moscow court banned Facebook and Instagram as “extremist” a week later, and in February 2026 Instagram was also dropped from Russia’s national DNS. Myanmar’s military ordered Instagram blocked in February 2021, after the coup, and again in May 2024.
Turkey’s telecoms authority, the BTK, blocked Instagram for nine days in August 2024 without giving a reason at first; the block came after reports that Instagram had removed Turkish users’ posts mourning the assassinated Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Turkey also throttled social media for 42 hours in March 2025, during protests over the arrest of Istanbul’s mayor, and in September 2025 Nepal blocked Instagram with 25 other platforms that hadn’t registered with the government.
Meta itself has hidden news posts from Instagram users in Canada since August 2023, in response to the Online News Act; that is the company’s choice, not a block. In Australia, Instagram has had to keep out users under 16 since 10 December 2025, and by March 2026 the eSafety Commissioner was investigating whether Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube were doing enough to comply.
Key dates
Australia’s eSafety Commissioner investigates Instagram and four other platforms over the under-16 ban in force since 10 December 2025.
Nepal blocks Instagram with 25 other platforms that hadn’t registered with the government, and lifts the ban days later after deadly protests.
Turkey’s telecoms authority blocks Instagram for nine days, after reports that it removed posts mourning the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Iran blocks Instagram and WhatsApp during the nationwide protests that began that month.
Russia blocks Instagram at the Prosecutor General’s demand; a Moscow court bans it as “extremist” on 21 March.
China blocks Instagram as photos of the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong spread on the app.
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History
Changes for Instagram
No confirmed changes since monitoring began on 29 Sep 2026. When a block appears or lifts, and a re-check on several machines agrees, it shows up here.
Method
How we test
Test machines on the two biggest home-internet providers in most countries open the homepage every day.
A failure counts only when it happens twice on the same network, while the site opens from other countries.
A change is published only after re-checks a few hours later and again the next day, on several machines per provider, confirm it. It’s dated from the first sighting.
Test machines caught getting around blocks, through a VPN or a filter-dodging tool, are set aside.
We test websites, mostly over home broadband. Apps, calls and mobile networks can behave differently.
China has blocked Instagram since September 2014, and Russia and Iran since 2022. Myanmar’s military ordered it blocked after the 2021 coup and again in May 2024. Turkey blocked it for nine days in August 2024, and Nepal for several days in September 2025, when it blocked 26 platforms.
Why Did Turkey Block Instagram?
Turkey’s telecoms authority, the BTK, gave no reason at first when it blocked Instagram in August 2024. The block followed reports that Instagram had removed posts by Turkish users mourning the assassination of the Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, and it lasted nine days.
When Did Iran Block Instagram?
In September 2022, during the nationwide protests that followed a young woman’s death in custody; WhatsApp was blocked at the same time. When Iran decided to lift its bans on WhatsApp and Google Play in December 2024, Instagram stayed blocked, as did Facebook and X, blocked there since 2009.
