After cutting off Twitter access within its borders, Turkey is now blocking its citizens from visiting YouTube. The latest act of internet censorship comes only one day after a Turkish court ordered the government to lift its Twitter ban and temporarily restore access to the service. Turkey is accused of blocking internet sites to stifle access to telephone recordings that reportedly reveal deep corruption within its government. The drastic steps are seen by many as an attempt to curtail protests around the corruption scandal as Turkey's elections approach. Only today, a secret recording of a sensitive, high-level security meeting focused on Syria was leaked through numerous social media channels including YouTube. This latest ban is likely intended to thwart that leak.
Aaand here we go. Youtube is now blocked in Turkey. That's where alleged recordings exposing corruption leaks live. pic.twitter.com/jTAkIAarq5
— Zeynep Tufekci (@zeynep) March 27, 2014
But as was the case with Twitter, people inside Turkey are already finding and sharing ways to circumvent the YouTube blockade. We've reached out to Google for comment on the latest developments in Turkey and will update this article with the company's response.
#Turkey need to unblock YouTube on Android? Change your 3G/4G Mobile APN proxy to proxy:localhost port:8118 http://t.co/0nBmSzLfJ5
— The Guardian Project (@guardianproject) March 27, 2014