Basketball Ireland has confirmed that its Instagram account has been restored by Meta after being "removed in error."
On Saturday, the governing body of Irish basketball declared that it had lost access to its Instagram page on February 11th and was told by META on February 14th that the account had been permanently disabled.
This came in the aftermath of the recent FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2025 Qualifier against Israel in Riga, which saw significant media coverage and calls for Basketball Ireland to boycott the fixture amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
"Basketball Ireland has been subject to added media and social media attention in the lead-up and the aftermath of the Ireland versus Israel FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2025 Qualifier, however nothing that has been posted on our social media channels during this time, before, or since, merits this decision by META," said Saturday's statement.
Basketball Ireland is pleased to announce that our official Instagram account has been restored by Meta. pic.twitter.com/krWIXk0IET
— Basketball Ireland (@BballIrl) February 18, 2024
Basketball Ireland issue update on dealings with META
BI stated that they would be appealing the META decision, and raising the matter with the Government and Sport Ireland as there was "no legitimate reason" to disable the account. On Sunday night, the following update was issued:
"Basketball Ireland is pleased to announce that our official Instagram account has been restored by META. Basketball Ireland was informed of this via email from META shortly after 5pm on Sunday, stating that the account was 'removed in error.'"
"Basketball Ireland would like to thank all those who assisted in resolving the matter and we look forward to showcasing Irish basketball at all levels on our official page with a busy week ahead, including our All-Ireland Schools League Finals, two FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 European pre-qualifiers and a packed domestic schedule."
Ireland's men's side begin their pre-qualifying campaign away to Kosovo on Thursday before hosting Switzerland and the National Basketball Arena on Sunday.
They will need to win the group, which also contains Azerbaijan, in order to reach the next phase of qualifying, or finish as the best-second placed team from the three groups of four.
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