YouTube Banned In Turkey Due To Racist Videos

AP reports that courts in Turkey have recently issued an order to ban access to YouTube from within the country, following videos with anti-Turkish remarks being uploaded on the site. The Istanbul First Criminal Peace Court issued the ban Wednesday on recommendations because of videos that allegedly insult Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey. Turkey’s largest telecommunications provider, Turk Telecom, has immediately enforced the ban.

Access to www.youtube.com from within ISPs in Turkey will result in this:

youtube-turkey-screenshot.png

The English translation says:

Access to www.youtube.com site has been suspended in accordance with
decision no: 2007/384 dated 06.03.2007 of Istanbul First Criminal
Peace Court.

The ban was prompted by what had been called a “virtual war” between Greeks and Turks, apparent with videos like one with Greek commandos chanting anti-Turkish remarks, as cited by a report on Today’s Zaman, which also also states that the Greek government is already investigating the concerned military division.

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In images broadcast over the Internet site YouTube, Greek commandos are shown singing a march with lyrics that include lines such as “We will break off the Turks’ heads and plant a cross in Hagia Sophia.”

The images on YouTube were shot of a Greek commando unit doing a 50-kilometer march that takes place every six months. The Greek soldiers captured in these images are singing the inflammatory marches in unison, with one particularly noticeable lyric as follows: “There was a ship, a tank-carrying ship. It left from Volos to plant fear. It goes to the shores of Little Asia (Turkey). To spread fire and ashes all over Turkey. It was full of sea marines. They blew the heads of any Turks they could find into the air. The heroes died opening the road to Hagia Sophia. I will march to Hagia Sophia, take off the Turkish caliphate sign and plant a cross there. Only then will God shed light on İstanbul and the Greek national march will ring from every corner.”

EarthTimes reports that Turkish newspapers had called for citizens to mass-email YouTube to take down the offending videos, and apparently more than 200,000 messages were sent to that effect. YouTube has since taken the concerned videos offline. It should be noted, though, that YouTube allows viewers to flag videos as inappropriate for various reasons, which include hate speech.

[Hat tip to Mert for this info and the screencap.]

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J. Angelo Racoma

J. Angelo Racoma is a technology journalist for CMSWire and TFTS. A former editor at Splashpress Media, The Blog Herald and Performancing, he now does consultancy work through WorkSmartr.com. Follow him at racoma.net and on Twitter.

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