Turkey lifts ban on video-sharing website YouTube

The Turkish government has lifted a blanket ban on video-sharing website YouTube following a ruling by the country’s Constitutional Court.

“The ban (on YouTube) has been lifted in line with the constitutional court order,” AFP quoted an official in the Turkish telecommunications authority (TIB) as saying on Tuesday. The name of the official was not mentioned in the report.

On May 29, Turkey’s top court had ordered the ban on the video-sharing website to be lifted as it breached individuals’ rights to freedom of speech.

YouTube had been blocked on March 27 after the release of a purported audio recording of a discussion among top Turkish officials about a possible false flag operation to justify a military offensive against Syria. The Turkish government denounced the leak on YouTube as an act of “espionage” and said it had created “a national security issue.”

The Turkish government also ruled against a similar ban on Twitter on March 20, which had been blocked after it was used to spread corruption allegations against Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his inner circle. The Constitutional Court, however, order the lifting of the ban on April 3.

These bans were widely criticized and considered a step backward for democracy in Turkey. Amnesty International had described the internet bans in Turkey as a “crude attempt at government censorship that will only generate deeper distrust and frustration.”