Google Is Added to Turkey’s Orders Against Facebook, Twitter 

A Turkish court ordered Google Inc. to remove images of a prosecutorwho was taken hostage and killed last week, adding to the ｃountry’s actionsagainst social media.

Failure to remove the pictures within four hours would promptthe government to block access to the search engine, Turkish state-run AnadoluAgency reported. Google wasn’t immediately available for comment.

The court issued similar orders against Facebook Inc. andTwitter Inc. They said they would appeal the court’s order to remove theimages, which were deemed to abet terrorism. Facebook in the meantimecomplied with the ruling to escape a blockage of its services in Turkey, thecompany said in an e-mailed statement.

The government lifted a ban on Google’s YouTube after theservice agreed to block images, Anadolu reported late Monday. The ban onTwitter also was lifted Monday.

“Turkey is really damaging itself by a law that allowsprosecutors to shut down Twitter, Facebook and YouTube,” Carl Bildt, formerlySweden’s prime minister and a champion of Turkey’s bid to join the EuropeanUnion, said on Twitter.

Turkey has passed several laws to strengthen control overthe Internet since December 2013, after hundreds of tape recordings allegedlyshowing political corruption were posted on social media. The EU has hascriticized Turkish government efforts to control Internet access as an attemptto curb freedom of speech.

The court ordered websites to remove photos of a prosecutorwho was taken hostage in a courtroom by leftist militants, then died of woundssustained during a police raid to free him. Several newspapers and websitespublished pictures of the prosecutor with a gun to his head, defying agovernment ban and outraging Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

‘Necessity’

Ibrahim Kalin, a spokesman for President Recep TayyipErdogan, said the ruling was demanded by a prosecutor who equated thedistribution of images of his slain colleague with terrorist propaganda. Hesaid the court ruling was “born of necessity” and wouldn’t infringe oncivil liberties.

Shares of Turkcell, the ｃountry’s largest mobile operator,fell as much as 1.8 percent in Istanbul after the announcement. If access tosome social media websites remains barred for a long time, the ban is“definitely going to have an impact on mobile data revenues,” Toygun Onaran, ananalyst at Teb Investment, a brokerage in Istanbul, said by phone. “Most of theusage is coming from social websites.”

Davutoglu’s ruling AK Party in March pushed through a lawthat lets the government block websites considered a threat to nationalsecurity without a court order. The law received parliamentary approval evenafter Turkey’s top court rescinded similar legislation last year asunconstitutional.

Erdogan has yet to approve the new Internet law.

National Newspapers

A prosecutor has started an investigation against fournational newspapers for printing images of the slain prosecutor. Davutoglucalled the distribution of the photos “unacceptable.”

The social media ban is “another disproportionate responserestricting press freedom, free speech,” Marietje Schaake, a Dutch member ofthe European Parliament, said on Twitter.

The court order comes as no surprise to investors, who aremore concerned about Turkey’s general political environment than the blockageof Twitter, according to Nicholas Spiro, managing director at Spiro SovereignStrategy in London.

“Turkey’s international reputation was tarnishedquite some time ago,” Spiro said by e-mail.

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-06/google-is-added-to-turkey-s-orders-against-facebook-twitter

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