Google's Turkish users fight

TURKISH INTERNET USERS are fighting their government to get access to Google's services.

The Turkish government blocked access to Youtube over what it claimed were insulting videos of the country's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. This block led to other services such as Google Maps being unreachable.

It wants Google to open an office in the country and the firm to pay the trifling matter of $20 million in taxes on revenues generated through Youtube. Last week, Turkish communications minister Binali Yildirim said that Youtube "entered a fight with the Turkish Republic" and that the government would "not bow our heads".

Turkey's Internet Technologies Association claims that the restrictions placed by the government are illegal and that millions of Internet users have been victimised. According to the group, as IP addresses are being blocked users are suffering service degradation by being unable to contact Google's servers.

Last year the group opened a case in the European Court of Human Rights over the blocking of Youtube and other sites. For Google its woes in Turkey add another country where the firm has found itself in hot water in recent times. Still, at least in this instance it has the people on its side. µ