Turkey blocks YouTube amid 'national security' concerns
The Turkish government reinforced its heavily criticised clampdown on social media on Thursday, blocking YouTube a week after it restricted access to the micro-blogging platform Twitter. The latest curbs came hours after an audio recording of a high-level security meeting was leaked on the video-sharing website.
According to Turkish media reports, the decision to block YouTube was taken by Turkey's telecommunications authority (TİB) as a "precautionary administrative measure." In February, Turkey passed a much criticised new internet law that allows the telecommunications regulator to block websites without a court order. Turkey previously banned YouTube in 2007, but lifted the ban three years later.
Social media users in Turkey were able to access the site using "virtual private networks" (VPNs) – which allow an anonymous connection to the web – or by changing the domain name settings (DNS) on computers and mobile devices.
"We're seeing reports that some users are not able to access YouTube in Turkey. There is no technical issue on our side and we're looking into the situation," Google said in a statement emailed to the Guardian.
The move by the TIB came hours after an anonymous YouTube account posted a leaked audio recording allegedly of a confidential conversation between Turkish intelligence chief Hakan Fidan, foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu, undersecretary of the foreign ministry Feridun Sinirlioglu and deputy chief of the general staff, Yasar Gürel, discussing possible military action in Syria.
A source at the prime minister's office told Reuters that the government had taken action against YouTube after the leak of the voice recordings created a "national security issue". The source said that Turkey was in talks with the video-sharing platform and may lift the ban if YouTube agreed to remove the content.
Several similarly incriminating recordings, allegedly showing massive government corruption and prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's direct influence on the media, have been leaked on social media in recent weeks. Erdogan has dismissed the allegations as lies and blackmail, accusing the opposition of trying to undermine the success of his Justice and Development party (AKP) ahead of critical local elections on Sunday.
Speaking at a campaign rally in Diyarbakir, Erdogan accused the Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen, who lives in exile in Pennsylvania, of being behind the leaks: "Pennsylvania commits treason. […] To publish this recording is villainous, cowardly and immoral. Who are you serving with the surveillance of such a meeting?"
A public statement published on the foreign ministry's website called the leak "an act of espionage." A local prosecutor's office has meanwhile launched an investigation into the YouTube account.
The move against YouTube came after the TIB blocked access to Twitter on Friday. That created outrage in Turkey, where social media is widely used, and a court overturned the block on Wednesday.
Friday's Twitter block came hours after Erdoğan vowed on the campaign trail to get rid of Twitter. He said on Tuesday that the network "was threatening national security" and that it had refused to co-operate with the Turkish authorities.
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