Basketball Ireland has announced that its Instagram account has been “permanently disabled” due to the recent FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2025 qualifier against Israel in Riga.
Amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, there was a lot of media coverage as the game approached, including calls for Basketball Ireland to boycott the game.
In the end, the Irish refused to shake hands with their opponents before losing 87-57 after an Israeli player accused them of anti-Semitism, a charge that Basketball Ireland vigorously refuted.
Basketball Ireland statement
“Basketball Ireland lost access to our Instagram page on Sunday 11th February and on Wednesday 14th we were informed by an automated message from META that our Instagram page had been permanently disabled,” another social media statement read. BI’s statement shared on media channels begins.
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“This is being appealed by Basketball Ireland as there is no good reason for META to do so. Basketball Ireland is a national governing body and only posts about Irish basketball. Our social media pages are , exists to showcase our international and domestic matches. From elite to grassroots level.
Latest information regarding loss of access to Basketball Ireland’s official Instagram account.
— Basketball Ireland (@BballIrl) February 17, 2024
“Basketball Ireland is receiving increased media and social media attention around the Ireland vs. Israel FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2025 Qualifier, and during this period This decision by META was well deserved and Basketball Ireland raised the issue with the Government and Sport Ireland.
“Basketball Ireland will continue to showcase Irish basketball through our other social media channels including X, Facebook, TikTok and LinkedIn, but our new Instagram page can be found by searching @ireland.basketball.”
“The Basketball Association of Ireland will have no further comment on this matter.”
As of Saturday afternoon, users searching for Basketball Ireland’s official page on Instagram were greeted with the message, “Sorry, this page is unavailable.”
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