Reports: Turkish government blocks social media in wake of airport attack

Shortly after the deadly terror attack at Istanbul's Atatürk Airport that killed several dozen people and injured scores more, reports began circulating that the Turkish government had blocked social media in the country. 

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

According to Vocativ, the office of the Turkish Prime Minister instituted the ban on any visuals of the explosion for national security reasons. 

Shortly after the attack, RTUK, Turkey's Radio and Television Supreme Council, expanded the ban to include all media.  

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has long opposed the use of social media and promised to "eradicate" it. If nothing else, outsiders are familiar with the case involving the man who shared a meme comparing Erdogan to Lord of the Rings character Gollum. 

But the issue has deeper, more disconcerting roots. According to Freedom House, in March 2015, Turkey's Constitutional Court passed a law that allowed the country's regulator "to ban content to secure the protection of life and private property, protection of national security and public order, prevention of crimes, and protection of public health without a prior court order."

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Within the last year, there have been multiple crackdowns by the Turkish government against media organizations inside the country, including the December 2014 raid that resulted in the arrests of over two dozen senior journalists, Erdogan's seeming revenge for reports of alleged governmental corruption. 

More recently, there was a daring police raid of a media office in October 2015. In January 2016, photos of an Erdogan aide kicking a protester mysteriously began to disappear from the Turkish internet. 

A raid of the country's best-selling opposition newspaper Zaman in March 2016 kept the issue in the spotlight. And, that same month, when Erdogan's team tried to suppress media coverage of the president's speech in Washington, D.C. with strong-arm tactics, it didn't go over too well. 

The media ban has been an issue as Turkey has been the victim of a spate of terror attacks in the last year, including a suicide bombing in Suruc in July 2015, a double suicide bombing in Ankara in October 2015, a suicide bombing in Istanbul in January and a  deadly bombing in Ankara in February. 

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.