Turkey lifts YouTube ban

Turkey lifts two-year YouTube ban following talks with Google
Turkey lifts two-year YouTube ban following talks with Google

The Turkish government has lifted a two-year ban on YouTube, following widespread criticism from Turks.

The ban was originally put in place as the Turkish authorities considered that a number of videos on the site were insulting to Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and to the concept of "Turkishness" more generally, both of which are illegal in the country.

Google talks Turkey

Turkish Transport Minister Binali Yildirim, said the government had been in negotiations with YouTube-owner Google, who had agreed to remove all the offending videos in question.

"YouTube will hopefully carry out its operations in Turkey within the limits of law in the future," said Yildirim, adding "common sense prevailed".

"But we didn't get here easily - we have been through a lot in the process," he told NTV.

"I hope that they have also learned from this experience and the same thing will not happen again. YouTube will hopefully carry out its operations in Turkey within the limits of law in the future," he added.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul had criticised the YouTube ban and pressed his ministers to find a quick solution.

YouTube said in a statement: "We want to be clear that a third party, not YouTube, have 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."

Via BBC News

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