Twitter and YouTube have both been blocked again in Turkey.
Reuters reports that the move is the result of a court decision based on complaints from individuals. It quotes a source in the country’s telecoms industry.
Access to both services has been blocked in Turkey before. In March 2014, they were rendered inaccessible after audio recordings were posted that were said to feature evidence of government corruption.
In that case, Twitter took to the courts to get the ban lifted. Earlier this year, those same courts ordered Facebook to censor pages judged to be insulting to the Prophet Mohammed.
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This time the bans are thought to have been triggered by the publication of photos showing a prosecutor who was taken hostage by militants in Istanbul last week.
Tayfun Acarer, the head of the country’s Information and Communications Technologies Authority, told Turkish news site Hürriyet that a ban on access to Facebook was lifted after it complied with the court ruling.
We’ve contacted both Twitter and YouTube for comment on the latest developments and will update this post if we hear more.
If you’re in Turkey, let us know in the comments how the situation is affecting you.
Update April 6, 2:03 PM ET:
Twitter’s ban has been lifted after it reportedly complied with court orders to remove content.
BREAKING: TurkTelecom effectively unblocks Twitter. DNS cache might still delay service for some users. pic.twitter.com/7o9HtNKqG0
— The OSINT (@theosint) April 6, 2015
Twitter has also acknowledged the issue:
We are aware of reports of interruption of our service in #Turkey, and we are working to restore access for our users as soon as possible.
— Policy (@policy) April 6, 2015
Update April 6, 3.34 PM ET:
A Twitter spokesperson confirms that the company is working to appeal the court decision.
Update April 7, 08.20 AM GMT:
Access to YouTube has also been restored.
➤ Twitter and YouTube blocked in Turkey after court decision: source [Reuters]
Image credit: Shutterstock
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