DDHK News, Turkey - Facebook closed a page that insulted the Prophet Muhammad in Turkey. The Turkish government is threatening will ban Facebook if the page is not revoked.
Reported Indonesian BBC, Facebook complied with a Turkish court order demanding the blocking of a page for "insulting the Prophet Muhammad."
If social media refused, the court threatened to block access to the entire Facebook site which is believed to have 40 million members in Turkey.
Facebook declined to comment, but the company has a policy of blocking access to content in a country if the content violates local laws.
Facebook publishes reports on requests for user data from governments of countries in the world. The latest report, covering the period January-June 2014, shows that 1.893 “content restrictions” were in place in Turkey at that time.
During the same period, Turkey also temporarily blocked access to Twitter and YouTube.
"These companies although based in the US but their users are global, they have to respect local customs and regulations," said internet security expert Prof. Alan Woodward of the University of Surrey.
"They are obliged to obey the country's laws, the key is transparency.
"There is a danger in the government censoring what people in a country can see, so people should know when something is censored."
According to Amnesty International, one of the largest newspapers in Turkey, Cumhuriyet, has been the object of a criminal investigation for publishing photos from the French magazine Charlie Hebdo following the massacre of its editorial staff. (with the BBC)
