Following the Turkish authorities decision to block Twitter after
images of a prosecutor killed by leftist armed men last week was
circulated on social media, the country has reversed the decision to
block the micro-blogging site.
The move came after Twitter complied with requests on publication of the controversial images. Also unblocked was Facebook which had been blocked earlier for similar reasons, Youtube however remains blocked.
Marxist Revolutionary People's Liberation Party–Front (DHKP-C) had published pictures showing one of the gunmen who took Prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz captive,
with his face concealed by a scarf and the group's red and yellow
insignia, holding a gun to the hostage's head at his offices in
Istanbul.
The images which were circulated on
social media while the siege was going on was published by several
Turkish newspapers as well as news websites, seriously irking the
Turkish government who then launched a probe into the 4 newspapers for
disseminating what they termed "terrorist propaganda".
Al Jazeera reports that prosecutors also filed a similar complaint it did for Twitter, Facebook and Youtube for Google
that led to a court decision demanding the company removes similar
content in 4 hours. Unless Google removes the content in the period
mentioned, it is likely to be blocked in the first hours of Tuesday.
According to the secretary general of Internet Service Providers Union (ESB), Bulent Kent,
Twitter confirmed through its lawyers in Turkey that all the requested
content had been removed from the website and it is now accessible.
This
won't be the first time Turkey would block social media channels as it
made a similar move in March 2014 during the the run-up to local
elections.
The Turkish government at the time
blocked Twitter and Youtube after audio recordings purportedly showing
corruption in the inner circle of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was prime minister at the time, were leaked to the internet.
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