Former Swedish prime minister and foreign minister Carl Bildt took to Twitter to criticize the Turkish government’s blanket bans of internet sites, including Monday’s brief blocking of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, as well as its threats to block Google.
Esteemed Swedish politician Carl Bildt, who served as prime minister of Sweden from 1991-94 and foreign minister from 2006-2014, slammed Turkey’s decision to ban Twitter, Facebook and YouTube on Monday.
“Turkey is really damaging itself by laws that allows prosecutors to shut down Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Simply stupid,” Bildt wrote on Twitter.
Turkey banned access to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube on Monday over content pertaining to slain prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz, who was killed in a hostage crisis a week earlier. The government issued a media gag order on coverage of the events, particularly on the publication of photographs taken during the hostage crisis, ordering the blocking of 166 individual URLs to stories related to the incident. Unable to prevent such content from spreading along social media platforms, the Istanbul Public Prosecutor issued the order to completely ban access the sites.
The bans on Facebook and Twitter were soon lifted after the two social media platforms complied and removed the offending content. Though the Turkish government later threatened to ban Google if it didn't do the same, which it did.
In a second tweet after the bans were lifted, Bildt tweeted: “Reports of Twitter ban in Turkey being lifted after removal of offensive photo. Blanket bans never a good way to deal with issues.”
Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, similarly noted on Tuesday that it was “important that people have free and unfettered access to news sources.”
