The Turkish government has lifted its ban on major streaming video community YouTube, the country announced today.
YouTube, along with many other social media sites, was placed on a block list more than two months ago after leaked videos went up containing recordings of Turkish government officials plotting a potential war against neighboring country Syria.
The block was made legal under new legislation pushed out from the country’s prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Last week, however, Turkey’s high court ruled that the legislation used to block YouTube was unconstitutional and in violation of the country’s freedom of speech laws. Now, government officials tell Reuters that YouTube should be accessible to citizens again by the end of the day.
Blocking the video site also curiously happened in the run up to new elections for prime minister, which Erdogan managed to win. It’ll be interesting to see how the public reacts to Erdogan’s involvement in blocking popular websites now that YouTube access will be restored shortly. I’d expect to see a ton of protest videos uploaded from the country in the next few days.
