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YouTube blocked and unblocked by the Turks
INTERNET VIDEO OUTFIT Youtube is going to meet with Turkey in a bid to solve a dispute that has seen its website blocked, unblocked, blocked again and finally unblocked.
Over the weekend Turkey announced that Youtube had been unblocked after two years, and then yesterday blocked it again.
Then to make doubly sure that we were all confused, it unblocked it and then threatened to switch it off over something else.
It looks like the row over Youtube's refusal to remove clips that are deemed offensive by the Turkish government will keep on running.
Turks attempting to directly access Youtube on Tuesday evening again encountered a blank screen with a message informing them that Youtube was blocked as part of a May 2008 court order.
That ruling had demanded that the company remove various videos considered insulting to the republic's founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
This was strange as the offending videos had been removed two years ago and the order had since been revoked after a court ruled that the efforts of a group of "volunteers" working with Turkish authorities succeeded in taking the four offending videos off Youtube.com, using its automated copyright protection system.
However Youtube said it would restore the videos, describing the copyright claim as invalid and rejecting what the volunteers had hoped would be a solution to end a ban, which is unpopular within Turkey and damaging to the country's reputation.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Youtube and the Turkish government are meeting to discuss the problem.
Apparently Youtube does not want to set a precedent for other governments by allowing Turkey to force the company to remove material worldwide. It had only blocked direct access to the videos within Turkey.
Yesterday the country's Internet directorate, which is responsible for enforcing Turkey's tough Internet laws, appeared to up the stakes.
It said that if Youtube did not comply with a recent court ruling that it should remove a video at the heart of a political sex scandal earlier this year, then another order to shut down Youtube would have to be issued.
The video showed Deniz Baykal, the then-leader of the Republican People's Party, Turkey's main opposition party, getting dressed in a hotel room with a lover. Baykal had to resign. µ
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What we see here is interesting. Cultural norms crashing with global norms of technology. This is more of a social issue than political or technological. How can we communicate without being culturally insensitive. Does anyone has an answer? Turk likes to know.
Is it because of that stupid goalkeeper ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qP6MCUcna0
Since there is nothing proving to the contrary, I must assume that Mustafa Kemal Ataturk:
- Was a crossdresser
- Was a closet Cheese-hater
- Commited henious crimes against lime-flavoured Jello
- Had a silly moustachio
- Was a fan of Jennifer Lopez movies
- Voted for Prop 19, twice!
Let's get the inq banned in Turkey.
I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY YOUTUBE İNSİST ON KEEEPİNG İNSULTING VİDEOS ABOUT MUSTAFA KEMAL ATATURK. THERE SHOULD'NT BE ANY VİDEOS İNSULTİNG ANY BODY! YET ATATURK WHO IS AN EXCEPTIONAL HUMAN BEING...
I just checked http://www.youtube.com/ from my Ankara University office and the page shows. And believe me, the Info Tech people at the university have an even stronger censorship policy on many sites compared to the Turkish government.
The blocking and unblocking is largely because Turkey has an executive in the prime and other ministries, and a court system. It's the court system that is the biggest problem. Even the most insignificant court appears to have the authority to censor the Internet merely because some guy walks in off the street, decides he doesn't like a web site, and so it gets put on a blocked list with a judge's order attached.
As a foreigner living in Turkey for more than 15 years, the concept of political freedoms and civil liberties is discussed in theory...in the abstract. When it actually comes to practicing it, Allah forbid! This is nation where conformity is not only a virtue and people get up out bed wanting to keep the silly traditions of their ancestors, rather than casting them off.
The assault against someone here with words is far more serious than the assault using fists. They have something called "criminal libel" here, and believe it or not, DEAD people can be criminally libeled.
Before societies and individuals can be brought into the 21st century, you need to drag them into the 20th at least. I know of only one nation that takes freedom of speech seriously anyway, and which does not jail its citizens for holding a sign up that makes an insulting expletive to the leader of its nation. If only more developed nations would also set an example for the lesser developed.