Turkey

Turkey court backtracks on YouTube ruling

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The Turkish government’s ban on access to video sharing website, YouTube, will remain in place after a court backed off from an earlier ruling to remove the site’s ban.

The court in Ankara lifted the Turkish government’s ban on YouTube on Friday, saying that the move violated human rights.

The court, however, backtracked later on the decision, saying that the ban would remain until the audio recordings allegedly showing political security talks of Turkish security officials on Syria are removed.

Ankara blocked access to Twitter on March 20, after it was used to spread corruption allegations against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his inner circle.

YouTube was blocked on March 27 after the release of an audio recording revealing a discussion among top Turkish security officials about a possible false-flag operation to justify a military offensive against Syria.

The Turkish government condemned the leak on YouTube as an act of “espionage” and said it had created “a national security issue.”

Erdogan ordered the Internet curbs in the run-up to key local elections last Sunday, in which his ruling Justice and Development party (AK) won a majority of the local government seats despite recent graft allegations and a harsh police crackdown on anti-government protesters last June.

Amnesty International has described the internet bans as a “crude attempt at government censorship that will only generate deeper distrust and frustration.”

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