Turkey Bans Access To Facebook, Twitter And YouTube

The government of Turkey today banned access to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube over the  images of a Turkish prosecutor killed by Far-Left militants during a hostage standoff last week went viral on social media.

The images were circulated on social media while the siege was going on and were published by several Turkish newspapers as well as news websites. 

The sites are inaccessible for many users in Turkey, with The Hurriyet, a local newspaper, saying that service providers got an order from prosecutors to block Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

The order reportedly blocked a total of 166 websites, including the three Internet giants, which published the images.

According to Bulent Kent, the secretery general of Internet Service Providers Union (ESB), a prosecutor’s order was issued to the union, that all service providers were expected to implement the ban immediately.

Turkey’s parliament last month approved legislation to tighten the government’s control over the Internet by allowing it to block websites without prior judicial authorisation, sparking outrage both at home and abroad.

This comes a year after the same social media platforms were banned in March 2014, shortly before local elections because recordings reportedly suggesting corruption implicating the then Prime Minister, Tayyip Erdoğan were shared online.