Turkey lifts ban on Twitter as it removes photos of prosecutor

Turkey today blocked access to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube over the publication of images of a Turkish prosecutor killed by leftist militants during a hostage standoff last week.
The online sites were inaccessible for many users in Turkey, with the Hurriyet newspaper saying that service providers received an order from prosecutors to block those three internet giants as well as other websites.
The authorities set a deadline of four hours for Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to remove the offending content.
Facebook was initially the only one to comply with the deadline and access to the social network was restored accordingly, Tayfur Acarer, head of country's telecommunications authority (TIB), told Hurriyet.

The ban on Twitter was also lifted later after it also gave in to Turkey's demand, said Bulent Kentles, the secretary general of the union of Internet service providers (BSE).
However a Twitter source, who did not confirm that the social media platform had complied with Turkey's demand, said the company planned to appeal the Turkish court order.

Discussions with YouTube were ongoing, Hurriyet quoted Kentles as saying.
YouTube.Com ran the text of a court ruling on its site saying an "administration measure" had been implemented by TIB.
Hurriyet said the order blocked a total of 166 websites which published the images, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Publication of any material related to the hostage standoff amounted to "terrorist propaganda" inciting people to "hatred and violence" and disturbing the public order, the court ruling read.
The ban was widely circumvented as well as mocked by many of Turkey's almost 12 million Twitter users, with one user named @BinaShah writing: "Come to Turkey and disconnect (possible new tourism slogan)."
The hashtag #TwitterisblockedinTurkey quickly made it to Twitter's top world trending topics.
Prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz and his two captors linked to the Marxist Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) were killed after a shootout at a courthouse in Istanbul last Tuesday.

The DHKP-C had published pictures showing one of the militants -- his face concealed by a scarf with the group's red and yellow insignia -- holding a gun to the hostage's head in the prosecutor's offices.