Turkey blocks Twitter, YouTube and Facebook

Turkey has temporarily blocked Twitter, YouTube and Facebook after images of a public prosecutor being held hostage were circulated via those websites. The websites are now up and running again.

Twitter, Facebook and YouTube were inaccessible through multiple providers on Monday, various media reported. The websites are now back online, Bloomberg reports.

The websites were blocked because images were circulated of a public prosecutor being held hostage. He died in the hostage situation. Several newspapers and websites published photos of the hostage situation, which showed the prosecutor being held at gunpoint by radical left-wing militants, much to the chagrin of the Turkish government.

A Turkish court then decided that websites should remove the images. If they don’t, they can be blocked under Turkish law, which happened in the case of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Facebook then removed the images, but like Twitter has indicated that it will appeal against the decision.