Turkey is holding critical local elections in three days' time, and the incumbent administration blocked Twitter last week to protect itself from criticism and corruption whistle-blowers. Now, following the leak of a private video showing Turkish government officials discussing sensitive information, they have also blocked YouTube within their borders--at least until the video is deleted from the site.
Turkey's telecommunications authority announced the block on their website, declaring that it had taken an "administrative measure" against YouTube after "technical analysis and legal consideration."
The video in question purportedly displays Turkey's foreign minister, spy chief and a top general discussing scenarios that could lead the country to attack Jihadist militants in Syria.
It's a big stretch to jump to blocking the entire YouTube website, but you can understand that Turkey wouldn't want that video to be seen by the public, or anyone (regardless of whether their decisions are right or wrong).
The Wall Street Journal explains, "In recent months, Twitter and YouTube have become key fronts in a new political struggle between Mr. Erdogan and Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based imam and former ally who has in the past two years become the premier's nemesis." They've also provided a guide to the whole video scandal, found here, if you want to better understand the situation.
Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had repeatedly warned Google that YouTube would be blocked if it failed to abide by Turkey's laws, which they clearly felt the video did not. The Twitter ban was met with harsh criticism, even from Turkey's own President, Abdullah Gul, who defied the block by tweeting, "One cannot approve of the complete closure of social media platforms."
Source: WSJ
