Turkish authorities have blocked access to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube over their initial refusal to remove photos of a prosecutor who was taken hostage by militants in Istanbul. In eight hours, all three social media giants complied with the court ruling and Ankara revoked the ban.
Every time Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are taken away from us it gets more absurd – and it happens very frequently indeedGregor Samsa wakes up one fine morning to find himself transformed into a giant insect; Josef K is arrested, unexpectedly, by mysterious agents on his birthday. Here in Turkey, in an atmosphere increasingly resembling that of Kafka’s tales, we wake up every few months to find our social media tools taken away from us for an indefinite time, by unidentified agents. It gets more absurd every time it happens – and it happens very frequently indeed.
Bekir Altun, the judge behind Turkey’s recent ban on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, has a previous history of rulings that caused the deletion of journalist tweets and news piece censorships.
Authorities lift the temporary ban on the social media website after it complied with the country’s requests.
A staunchly pro-government newspaper has stirred controversy by claiming that the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, was poisoned by his long-time comrade İsmet İnönü.
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