Meta has confirmed that Basketball Ireland’s Instagram page has now been restored, saying that “the account was removed in error”.
On Saturday, Basketball Ireland contacted the government and Sport Ireland after claiming their Instagram page had been “permanently disabled”.
In a statement, the association said that had it lost access to the social media page on Sunday, 11 February and was informed by Meta, Instagram’s parent company, on Wednesday, 14 February that it had been permanently disabled.
Basketball Ireland said it would appeal the decision as “there is no legitimate reason to do so by Meta” and had set up a new Instagram page in the meantime.
Basketball Ireland had been in the spotlight following the senior women’s team’s controversial EuroBasket 2025 qualifier against Israel last week, something the statement went on to allude to.
“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. Basketball Ireland has raised this matter with Government and Sport Ireland.”
When contacted by RTÉ Sport for comment, Meta, which is also the parent company for social media platforms Facebook, WhatsApp and Threads, responded by saying: “The account was removed in error and has now been restored and we’ve been in touch with Basketball Ireland.”