Turkey: Twitter blocked as court orders ban on Suruc 'Isis' suicide bombing pictures and videos

A Turkish court has ordered the block of access to and publication of pictures and videos of the alleged Islamic State suicide bombing that took place in the south-eastern border town of Suruc, killing at least 32 young socialists on 20 July.

The Suruc magistrate of peace banned the "publication of visual material related to the terror attack" according to Anadolu Agency, and also ordered a block of Internet access to such images and video.

A senior state official told Today's Zaman that several internet service providers (ISPs) in the country blocked access to Twitter in a bid to prevent the distribution of images of the attack. The official said Turkish technologies and communications authority (BTK) was not involved in the Twitter access block and the it was expected to be lifted soon.

Hurriyet news reported that the court ordered the removal of 107 pictures and videos of the massacre. ISPs quickly complied by blocking access to 50 articles - but failed to remove the remaining, leading to the complete temporary block on Twitter.

The hashtag #TwitterBlockinTurkey started to trend worldwide.

Turkey had enforced a ban on Twitter followed by YouTube last year after audio recordings allegedly showing corruption by then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's inner circle were leaked.

The 2014 ban faced strong backlash from the Turkish people, who saw it as an effort to curtail freedom of speech.

The two-week ban was lifted after a constitutional court ruling said that the ban was a breach of freedom of expression.