Michael Calore

Turkey vs. YouTube

As we learned earlier today, a government court in Istanbul, Turkey has blocked all access to YouTube from within the country. The reason for the decision is an ongoing scuffle between a group of Greek and Turkish videobloggers who have been lobbing nationalist insults at each other for the past few months. From The Times: […]

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As we learned earlier today, a government court in Istanbul, Turkey has blocked all access to YouTube from within the country. The reason for the decision is an ongoing scuffle between a group of Greek and Turkish videobloggers who have been lobbing nationalist insults at each other for the past few months. From The Times:

Greek videos reportedly accused the founding president of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, of homosexuality; a Turkish user responded by calling Greece the birthplace of homosexuality... It is illegal to criticise either Ataturk or Turkishness in Turkey and the prosecutor???s office in Istanbul acted despite YouTube???s agreement to take down the offending videos.

All of Turkey's internet access is handled by one company, the state-owned Turk Telecom, which threw the switch today. The intrepid bloggers at 27B Stroke 6 have posted a few tips on how to evade the Turkish ban via web proxies. Also, TechCrunch is reporting that some Turkish bloggers are uniting to try to get the ban overturned.

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Screenshot: Osman S Borutecene