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Tag: YouTube Ban

  • Turkey Continues War On Social Media

    After a court order forced the ban on Twitter to be lifted, I knew it was only a matter of time before Turkish officials shifted their attention to a different form of social media.

    I had guessed Instagram, but then what do I know?

    It’s actually popular website Youtube that is the new focus of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government allies.

    Erdogan declared war on the video-sharing site after a secret security meeting on Syria made its way to the site, courtesy of Fethullah Gulen. The US-based cleric’s YouTube followers are blamed by Erdogan for the leak.

    The uploaded material allegedly features high-ranking members of the military and government discussing fabricating an attack on Turkey. The act would then be used to justify military aggression against Syria.

    While government officials admit that there was a discussion about Syria, it is claimed that parts of the video were manipulated.

    The angry PM is calling the matter a “plot” related to the upcoming elections.

    Aside from the Youtube ban, Turkish government officials say they are taking the eaves-dropping situation absolutely seriously.

    President Abdullah Gul stated that officials will take “necessary” actions to find whoever is behind the leak. Gul also labeled it an “act of espionage targeting state security.”

    Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu at the same time claimed that controversy has “only benefited the regime” controlling Syria.

    The move to block YouTube came after the site refused a government request to remove the recording.

    Despite previous efforts to ban social media sites in order to limit corruption scandals falling flat, Turkey’s government officials are determined to keep up their efforts ahead of elections.

    Assuming election results are an entirely corruption-free affair, it could be that Turkish government officials are only making their chances of being re-elected worse.

    After all, we saw that Twitter wasn’t nearly that popular in Turkey until after the ban. The greater lengths that Erdogan and other officials go to in order to suppress discussion of corruption, it could be that they are inadvertently shining a greater light on the issue.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • YouTube Banned By Turkish Government Less Than A Week After Twitter Ban

    Just a few days after the Turkish government blocked popular social networking site Twitter, it also imposed a crackdown on the video streaming site YouTube.

    Twitter, which has an estimated 10 million Turkish subscribers, was blocked by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the run-up to the local elections due to fears that voters will be influenced by what he calls “fake online tapes” that accuse him of corruption.

    International news agency Reuters quoted PM Erdogan at a rally last week, saying that he could not see why “people of good sense” could take the side of popular social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube because they carry “all of kinds of lies” there.

    Less than a week after the Twitter ban, Turkish YouTube users claimed to have been greeted by a message stating that  “administrative measure” had been taken against the site after “technical analysis and legal consideration” in accordance with Turkish law.

    A leaked audio recording of top government officials discussing potential military operations in Syria previously flooded the video website, thus prompting Turkey’s telecommunications authority (TIB) to take another administrative measure against it. There have been speculations that the government’s decision to remove YouTube access was made because PM Erdogan and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) were trying to do some damage control over recent corruption allegations.

    However, it was also reported that some users are able to access YouTube, while others aren’t.

    Turkish Twitter users were originally getting around the crackdown by modifying their Domain Name System settings. The Twitter ban has since been lifted following a ruling imposed by an Ankara court. However, an insider from PM Edrogan’s office claimed that the TIB still had 30 days to appeal or implement the court’s decision.

    PM Edrogan made a promise during the campaign trail that he would “wipe out” the service and that he did not care about the reaction of the international community regarding the matter.

    According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, the seemingly hasty move to ban YouTube came after search engine Google turned down several requests from the Turkish government to remove videos featuring corruption accusations.

    At a rally held today, PM Erdogan described the leaked video on YouTube as “villainous”, and one of his officials claimed that it caused an issue of national security. The same source also stated that the government was negotiating with YouTube and that it may lift the ban if the video sharing site agreed to take down the incriminating content.

    Image via YouTube