Turkey blocks Youtube access from the country

Famous video sharing web site www.youtube.com has been banned and blocked by Turkey with the claim of having insulting Turkey’s founding father and first President Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. In Turkey, any kind of action performed or word used which might seem as an insult towards Ataturk is accepted as crime in Turkey.

There is no certainty about when the ban would be lifted and Youtube would be accessible by users from Turkey. Youtube has been banned previously with the decision of Turkish courts before until the “disrespectful videos” are removed and access has been available later on.

More than the respect part, there is no doubt that freedom of accessing to information is a necessity for all users on internet. Banning internet access is not the right way of correcting the systems the web site is based on. There are applications which helps users to report the videos which are promoting violence or seen as disrespectful to nations, ethnicity and religions. That is why these applications should be used by the concerned users and Youtube administrators should be checking the reports sent them via these messages in order to take the concerns into consideration more frequently and Turkey should lift the blocking on Youtube access immediately.