After Turkish authorities ordered the country's telecoms companies to block access to 166 sites Monday, including Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, the services are being restored as the offending image is being removed.
The sites were blocked over users sharing photos of Mehmet Selim Kiraz, who died in the hospital from injuries sustained while he was held hostage for eight hours by two militants linked to the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C).
Facebook moved to block any images of Kiraz before the deadline in the order and avoided a shutdown; however, Twitter was blocked for several hours Monday. The company said it had removed the images but would appeal the order in the courts. YouTube has yet to announce if it is complying with the order, and reportedly remains blocked.
The Turkish authorities have a checkered past with social media, having blocked several sites a year ago over leaked recordings of officials that were being shared online. Twitter has reported that Turkey was responsible for the majority of censorship requests it received in the second half of 2014.
Despite the relatively quick restoration of service on Twitter Monday, #TwitterisblockedinTurkey was trending internationally. Many Turkish users skirted the ban by using VPN services during the outage.