Turkey Blocks Access to Facebook, YouTube and Twitter

Turkey has blocked access to a number of social media sites over the publishing of photos of a prosecutor who was taken hostage last week.

2015-04-06 11:55

Turkey has blocked access to a number of international social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, over the publishing of photos of a prosecutor who was taken hostage last week. Reportedly access to Facebook has been reinstated after the site took down the photos.

The order, which applied to 166 websites, was implemented Monday afternoon .

Several Turkish media outlets are also under investigation for publishing the 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).

This is not the first time Turkey has blocked social media networks in the country; in March 2014, Twitter was blocked for several weeks after the leaked audio recordings of Turkish officials were shared on the network. The service was restored for Turkish users after a court ruled the block was illegal.