Turkey Bans Youtube

ABC News is reporting that Youtube has been banned in Turkey after a Turkish Court ordered the ban of the site. This has resulted from uploading of videos insulting the founder of modern day Turkey, Mustafa Kamal Ataturk. Turkey’s largest Telecom provider, Turk Telecom, has already enforced the ban.

Over the past few weeks a virtual war has been taking place on Youtube between Greeks and Turks, with both sides belittling each other. The alleged video claimed that Ataturk and Turkish are homosexuals. Insulting Ataturk is a crime punishable by prison in Turkey. Last year a publisher was jailed for publishing Noam Chomsky´s book in Turkey. He was later released on Chomsky´s intervention.

Previously Youtube evaded a ban in India after a controversial video of Mahatma Gandhi was posted on the site. The site was banned and then cleared in Brazil after Ronaldo´s ex-wive´s sex video with her boyfriend got online.

While we are at it, it would be interesting to note that blogger and wordpress are banned in Pakistan.

Snapshot courtesy Cem Sertoglu