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Turkey blocks access to Twitter to halt spread of 'terrorist propaganda' Turkey blocks access to Twitter to halt spread of 'terrorist propaganda'
(35 minutes later)
Turkey blocked access to Twitter and YouTube on Monday over the publication of photographs of an Istanbul prosecutor held at gunpoint by far-left militants hours before he was killed in a shootout last week, officials said. A Turkish court has temporarily banned access to the social media sites YouTube, Twitter and Facebook over the publication of photographs showing the kidnapping of a prosecutor by far-left militants in Istanbul last week.
Ibrahim Kalin, a presidential spokesman, said a prosecutor had sought the block on access to social media sites because some media organisations had acted “as if they were spreading terrorist propaganda” in sharing the images. Mehmet Selim Kiraz died from bullet wounds last Tuesday after security forces stormed the office in the Istanbul courthouse where militants of the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Front (DHKP-C) had taken him hostage.
“This has to do with the publishing of the prosecutor’s picture. What happened in the aftermath (of the prosecutor’s killing) is as grim as the incident itself,” Kalin said. The DHKP-C had published a picture of Kiraz held at gunpoint on social media, saying that he would be killed unless their demands were met. His two captors were killed in the gunfire.
“The demand from the prosecutor’s office is that this image not be used anywhere on electronic platforms.”
Istanbul prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz died last Tuesday after security forces stormed the office where members of the far-left Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) took him hostage. His two captors were also killed.
Related: Turkish prosecutor taken hostage dies after police shootout kills two leftist militantsRelated: Turkish prosecutor taken hostage dies after police shootout kills two leftist militants
The pro-government Daily Sabah newspaper said on Monday that a British citizen, of Polish origin, had been among those arrested on Saturday as part of an operation against the DHKP-C. The social media ban follows a court’s demand that authorities block 166 websites that published the photos, including direct links to stories published by Turkish newspapers that feature the controversial images.
A source from the Foreign Office confirmed that a UK national had been held by police and that he had been offered consular assistance, but gave no further details. Seven Turkish newspapers face a criminal investigation after publishing the image of Kiraz.
The DHKP-C had published a picture of Kiraz with a gun to his head and said it would kill him unless its demands were met. According to Tayfun Acarer, the head of the Turkish Information and Communications Technologies Authority (BTK), the ban on Facebook had been lifted after the social media platform quickly complied with the court ruling.
A senior Turkish official told Reuters: “The wife and children of prosecutor Kiraz have been deeply upset. The images are everywhere. Bülent Kent, the secretary general of the Internet Service Providers Union (ESB), told the Turkish daily Hürriyet that the “procedure” would continue and that all service providers were expected to rapidly implement the ban.
“A request has been made to both Twitter and YouTube for the removal of the images and posts but they have not accepted it and no response has been given. That’s why this decision has been taken through a court in Istanbul.” Soon after the Twitter ban came into effect, the hashtag #TwitterisblockedinTurkey became the top trending term globally. Hürriyet Online published step-by-step instructions on how to circumvent the ban, and Twitter users in Turkey took to the microblogging website to mock the effort to prevent people from using it.
Twitter and YouTube could not be reached for comment. Turkey’s telecoms regulator also could not be reached and there was no statement on its website. “We learn from Twitter that Twitter is blocked”, one user tweeted. “Do you still not understand that there are no ‘bans’ for us?”
Turkey temporarily blocked Twitter and YouTube in the run-up to local elections in March 2014, after audio recordings purportedly showing corruption in then-prime minister Tayyip Erdogan’s inner circle were leaked on their sites. That decision caused a public uproar and drew heavy international criticism. Turkey has blocked both Twitter and YouTube in the past. In the runup to local elections in March 2014, access to both sites was temporarily banned after audio recordings alleging corruption in the inner circle of then-prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s party were leaked.
Turkey filed more than five times as many content-removal requests to Twitter as any other country in the second half of 2014, data published in February by the micro-blogging site showed. Turkish tweeters, by now well versed in getting around government clampdowns, were also quick to share different methods of tiptoeing around the ban using “virtual private networks” (VPNs), which allow internet users to connect to the web undetected, or changing the domain name settings on computers and mobile devices to conceal their geographic whereabouts.
Last year, Turkey tightened laws allowing sites to be blocked by the authorities more easily. The ban caused widespread outrage both in Turkey and internationally.
“Just as it is illogical and irrational to close down an entire library because it contains a few ‘banned books’, it is meaningless to ban the access to social media platforms that contain billions of useful documents and information to all of the Turkish people only because there is some inappropriate content,” the Turkish Press Council said in a public statement.
The presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin defended the ban. Speaking at a press conference in Ankara on Monday, he said that the court passed the ruling because some media outlets supported the “spreading of terrorist propaganda” by publishing the images of Kiraz being held at gunpoint.
“[The ruling] has to do with the publishing of the prosecutor’s photograph. What happened [after the prosecutor’s killing] is as terrible as the incident itself”, Kalin told the press. “The demand from the prosecutor’s office is that this image not be used anywhere in electronic platforms.”