Turkey Intends To Prevent Hostage Image From Spreading Online

There are no borders on the Internet, and over here in cyberspace, walls and fences come tumbling down, and it would also require a very different kind of surveillance in order to keep track of things. In fact, a Turkish court has issued an order to prevent Internet firms to block access to social media sites so that the sharing of photos of a hostage who was taken during an armed siege will no longer be circulated.

In the particular armed siege, it was said that a couple of gunmen who allegedly hailed from a far-left group did take a prosecutor hostage at an Istanbul courthouse. Among the big guns of the sites involved were Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube – not to mention over 150 other sites too, were given the notice to remove all images that had a connection with the siege, to be removed.

It is interesting to note that YouTube remains blocked in the country, while the block on Facebook and Twitter was lifted after both social networks decided to go ahead and roll with the court order. Prior to that, Turkish authorities too moved swiftly to prevent newspapers from printing the images. Guess the blocking of YouTube in Turkey is nothing new to the Google-owned company by now.

Image courtesy of Reuters.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Computers
Tags: Facebook, turkey, Twitter, YouTube