ISTANBUL, Turkey, April 6 (UPI) -- Access was restored to Facebook and Twitter on Monday after a Turkish court blocked more than 150 websites that published the photograph of a prosecutor with a gun to his head as he was being held hostage last week.
The court ordered the social media websites, as well as YouTube, to remove the image, which was initially shared by a Twitter account belonging to the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C).
The group claimed responsibility for taking prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz hostage March 31. Kiraz later died at a hospital after a firefight between police and his captors.
The Turkish government accused the websites -- which included dozens of local and international news organizations -- of disseminating terrorist propaganda for DHKP-C, which is considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the EU and the United States.
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Talks to restore access to YouTube in Turkey were ongoing, and access was restored to Facebook and Twitter after the companies removed the offending image.
"It is not acceptable for certain media organizations that must act with the responsibilities of being the press to publish these photos, as if they were engaged in terrorism propaganda," Turkish presidency Spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Monday.
Meanwhile, the ban prompted the hashtag #TwitterIsBlockedInTurkey to become a trending phrase across the globe. Twitter users in Turkey were still able to access the site, though, using work-around instructions.
#TwitterisblockedinTurkey but I was on Twitter much more than a regular day. Guess I'm doing something wrong.
— Ahmet A. Sabancı (@ahmetasabanci) April 6, 2015Reports of Twitter ban in Turkey being lifted after removal of offensive photo. Blanket bans never a good way to deal with issues.
— Carl Bildt (@carlbildt) April 6, 2015A Turkish proverb says that rules are made to be broken. #TwitterisblockedinTurkey
— Fatih Alp (@fatihalp88) April 6, 2015This isn't the first time Turkey has blocked social media websites. In June, access to YouTube was restored after a two-month blackout due to the publication of a sensitive video allegedly showing officials discussing a military incursion into Syria.
In March 2014, then-Turkish Prime Minister, now President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to eradicate Twitter and blocked access to the site for less than a month.
DHKP-C said it took Kiraz hostage in response to the death of Berkin Elvan, who was in a coma for nine months after he was struck by a teargas canister fired by police during the Gezi Park protests of 2013. Berkin died on March 11, 2014. Kiraz was investigating the incident.
The armed men threatened to kill Kiraz if the officer who shot the canister at Berkin was not arrested. Demands included that the officer who shot Berkin publicly confess his guilt and that he be tried in a people's court.
