Turkey blocks social media sites Twitter and YouTube over hostage photos

A Turkish court has ordered blocks on Twitter and YouTube for sharing photos of a hostage taken during an armed siege last week. The blocks follow the publication of images of the deadly siege being shared via the social networks.

In the siege two gunmen from an allegedly far-left group took a prosecutor hostage at Istanbul central courthouse. All three people died in a shootout when police stormed the building during an attempt at rescuing the hostage.

Turkish authorities had moved to stop newspapers printing images taken during the siege last week before imposing the blocks on the websites. The government accused newspapers of disseminating "terrorist propaganda" for the DHKP-C group that was reportedly behind the attack on the courthouse. Turkey, the European Union and US consider the DHKP-C a terrorist group.

Mehmet Selim Kiraz, was apparently taken hostage after heading an investigation into the death of a boy during anti-government protests that took place in 2013.

According to Turkish paper Hurriyet, the same pictures showing attackers holding a gun to Kiraz's head were also being widely shared on social media, leading authorities to act.

The court order blocked a total of 166 websites that shared the images.

YouTube published the text of the court ruling on its website saying an "administration measure" had been enacted by Turkey's telecoms authority. Facebook was also subject to the block but it is believed the restrictions on it have been lifted after it removed the images.

Many Turkish people reported via social media that they were having problems accessing the sites and many others.

The BBC reports that this is not the first time that Turkish authorities have imposed blocks on social media sites and networks, with blocks in the run up to elections in March 2014 being imposed after recordings circulated, allegedly revealing corruption among senior officials.

Figures provided by Twitter revealed that Turkey filed more requests to remove content from the social network than any other nation between July and December 2014.