Turkey blocks Twitter and YouTube
Once again, Turkish internet users have been blocked from Twitter and YouTube by a prosecutor's decision. Turkish authorities blocked access, this time citing the posting of photos of prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz during his hostage-taking, in which the unfortunate prosecutor was depicted with a gun to his temple.
A document sent by the Istanbul Public Prosecutor's Office to the Turkish Telecommunications Providers Association asks member companies to block access to these social networks (Twitter and Youtube). Many providers immediately proceeded to block access to the social networks (by noon on Monday) and it is expected that the prosecutor's order will also be implemented immediately by other providers.
Facebook was also caught up in the Turkish authorities' game of censorship, where it was also temporarily blocked from the internet, but according to Tayfun Acarer, head of Turkey's Information and Communications Technologies Authority, who told the Turkish news site Hürriyet, the ban on access to Facebook was lifted because the company complied with the court's decision.
This is the second time that Turkey has played with the right to free speech. In March 2014, Turkish authorities made the same move after leaked audio recordings claimed to have evidence of government corruption. At that time, Twitter went to court to have the ban lifted.
Also, in early 2015, the same courts condemned the largest social network, Facebook , for not censoring pages that are offensive to the Prophet Muhammad.
Source: secnews.gr/
