Turkey Lifts YouTube Ban

Turkey has lifted its ban on YouTube after two years of blocking access to the popular video site.

Back in March 2007, a Turkish court ordered YouTube to be banned in that country because of offensive comments about the founding father of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. This ban was eventually lifted, but videos insulting the founding father caused one new ban after another; YouTube was finally completely blocked in Turkey in May 2008, with the blockade lasting more than two years.

Now, according to Turkish Transport Minister Binali Yildirim, the ban has been lifted as the offending videos were removed from YouTube. “…We didn’t get here easily, we have been through a lot in the process. I hope that they have also learned from this experience and the same thing will not happen again. YouTube will hopefully carry out its organization in Turkey within the limits of law in the future,” he said.

Interestingly enough, YouTube claims it had nothing to do with the removal of the offending videos.

“We want to be clear that a third party, not YouTube, [has] apparently removed some of the videos that have caused the blocking of YouTube in Turkey using our automated copyright complaint process. We are investigating whether this action is valid in accordance with our copyright policy.” YouTube said in a statement.

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