Turkish authorities placed a ban on Twitter and YouTube Monday after the two sites refused "to remove photos of a prosecutor who was taken hostage by militants in Istanbul," Hurriyet Daily News reported.
An official confirmed that many of Turkey's internet providers had implemented the ban on April 6 after citizens complained about not having access to those particular sites, and that the government expects all Turkish internet providers to do the same in the upcoming months.
The prosecutor is Mehmet Selim Kiraz, who is currently involved in the controversial case of the killing of Gezi victim Berkin Elvan, hostage in Istanbul's Çağlayan Courthouse on March 31. Kiraz succumbed to his wounds before his rescue.
YouTube and Twitter were both included in a recent court ruling that placed a ban on 166 sites that were not willing to remove all photos of the abducted prosecutor.
"The wife and children of prosecutor Kiraz have been deeply upset. The images are everywhere.....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," one official told Reuters.
Technosociologist Zeynep Tufekci is a little skeptical of this, though. She said that this ban is similar to past attempts to ban social media, wherein the government attempted to make certain social media sites look like "a place from which only ugly things come from, and which poses a danger to family and to unity."
This isn't the first action that Turkey has committed to reportedly protect Kiraz and his family. The government banned 13 media organizations from access to Kiraz's April 1 funeral after they posted photos showing Kiraz as a hostage.
