Twitter, YouTube access blocked in Turkey due to sharing of hostage crisis photo

ANKARA. KAZINFORM - Turkish Internet users are having problems accessing Twitter and YouTube after the social media sites were blocked based on a prosecutorial order.

The order came following extensive sharing last week of photographs of a terrorist holding a gun to the head of an İstanbul prosecutor hours before the prosecutor was killed, according to Today's Zaman. Presidential Spokesman İbrahim Kalın said: "This has to do with the publishing of the prosecutor's picture. What happened in the aftermath [of the prosecutor's killing] is as grim as the incident itself." Access Providers Union (ESB) representative Bülent Kent, speaking to the Hürriyet daily, said that a prosecutorial order was issued to the union, but the process is ongoing. The prosecutor's order is expected to be delivered to the Turkish access providers TTNET, Turkcell, SuperOnline, Avea and others. A source in Turkey's telecoms industry earlier told Reuters that access to Twitter and video-sharing website YouTube were blocked following a court decision based on complaints from individuals.