Twitter and YouTube blocked in Turkey over gruesome hostage photo posts

Turkey today banned users access to YouTube and microblogging site, Twitter following a court ruling. The court ruling came after there was heightened unrest in Turkey following the gruesome images a prosecutor, Mehmet Selim Kiraz were posted on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

Mehmet Selim Kiraz who was a public prosecutor in Istanbul was held hostage by members of the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C). He died from his injuries when Turkish security forces stormed the office building in which he was held prisoner by DHKP-C.

The DHKP-C specifically targeted Mehmet Kiraz because of his involvement in the investigation into the death of 15-year-old teenager Berkin Elvan who was injured during anti-government protests in June 2013 and died subsequently from the injuries.

Taking Kiraz hostage, the group demanded via its website and social media that police “confessed” to their involvement in the teenager’s death, and be prosecuted.

Upon his death, gory images taken during his hostage time were leaked online by DHKP-C and were being shared on the social media networks and YouTube. The court decided to ban both Twitter and YouTube, users from Turkey reported that even Facebook was unavailable to them for short while.

Source : We Live Security

Update # Due ISP level ban on Twitter and YouTube, the usage of Tor anonymiser network by Turkish Internet users has suddenly shown a spurt

#Tor users from Turkey increased highly since today's censorship on social media. #TwitterisblockedinTurkey pic.twitter.com/TmiFiNCxFx

— Anis (@0xUID) April 6, 2015