Twitter ban, due to Suruc attack images, lifted in Turkey
A government official said Turkey had asked Twitter to remove 107 posts that contained images of the aftermath of the bombing.
22.07.2015
Turkey is to lift a block on access to Twitter soon, after the micro-blogging site removed images related to a suicide bomb attack blamed on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a senior Turkish official told Reuters on Wednesday.
Several Internet service providers had blocked access to Twitter on Wednesday morning in line with a local court ruling to prevent the distribution of images of the attack two days ago, which occurred in the southeastern town of Suruç near the Syrian border and claimed 32 lives, most of whom were young people. Internet users in Turkey had reported having problems in accessing social media website Twitter ever since the early hours of the day.
A government official said Turkey had asked Twitter to remove 107 posts that contained images of the aftermath of the bombing. Twitter had removed some 50 of the URLs and was working to remove the remaining problematic posts.
According to the Turkish media, the ban was issued for 106 Twitter posts, 53 news portal websites, 11 Facebook posts and one Youtube video.
The official said he expected the URLs that contained the content to be removed soon and for access to be restored. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of rules that bar officials from speaking to journalists without authorization.
Turkey has previously banned access to both Twitter and Facebook, after photographs of a terrorist holding a gun to the head of an İstanbul prosecutor hours before the prosecutor was killed was shared on social media. The Turkish authorities also blocked access to Twitter and YouTube in the wake of a series of incriminating audio recordings leaked online that purportedly featured people in the inner circle of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who was prime minister at the time and is now president. The photos allegedly showed both members of his family and the president himself. The leaks followed a corruption scandal that erupted with a wave of detentions on Dec. 17, 2013. Access to Twitter and YouTube was restored after Turkey's Constitutional Court revoked the bans.