1st Criminal Court of Peace of Istanbul, Mehmet Selim Kiraz Case, No. 2015/1644

(1) The 1st Criminal Court of Peace in Istanbul issued a content removal and blocking order against Twitter, Facebook and YouTube according to a request of the Chief Public Prosecutor of the Terror and Organized Crime Investigation Bureau. The Prosecutor Office demanded that the images of the public prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz held hostage at gunpoint will not be used anywhere on electronic platforms. Mr. Mehmet Selim Kiraz later died of the injuries he suffered during an attempt of the Turkish special forces to rescue him from the kidnappers. Possibly, 166 website were affected by the court order, including international newspaper websites such as The Independent, The Mirror, and Tgcom24 and major Turkish news channels and newspapers.

(2) The decision demanded the removal of the content and ordered the website blocking if the online platforms did not comply with the request. After the initial refusal to remove the content, the leading Turkish Internet Service providers implemented the ban on Twitter and YouTube. Facebook complied immediately with the request of removal and was not reached by the implementation of the blocking order. Facebook will appeal the decision, despite momentarily complying with the court order.

(3) Later, the blocking order on YouTube and Twitter was lifted after the companies complied with the court's request and removed from their platforms the links listed in the court order. See also CIS blog.