Turkey Blocks Some Social Media Over Hostage Situation
Published at(ISTANBUL) — Turkish authorities have ordered blocks on both YouTube and Twitter due to images of a recent hostage situation.
A court said on Monday that pictures showing a masked gunman holding a pistol to the head of a prosecutor were promoting terrorism.
Last month, members of a banned leftist group took hostage prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz in an Istanbul courthouse. Kiraz and two of the hostage takers were killed when Turkish special forces raided the building.
The prosecutor was investigating the death of a teenage boy who was killed following nationwide protests in 2013. The boy was hit in the head with a police tear gas canister during demonstrations and languished in a coma for months before dying.
The outlawed leftist group, the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Front, called for police to admit to killing the boy, among other demands.
This isn’t the first time Turkey has clamped down on social media and blocked certain sites. Last year, a corruption scandal implicating several officials with ties to Turkey’s president prompted a short ban on some social media.
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