Back in May of 2008, YouTube went black in Turkey, after a video uploaded to the online video hosting site was deemed insulting to the founder of nation, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Ever since then, anyone who lives in Turkey has had to go to extraordinary lengths to access the site.
Google’s always stuck to its guns when it comes to Turkey. Although they could have just deleted the offending video and opened back up for business, Google recognized that it was a slippery slope, deleting content deemed offensive by sovereign governments.
Interestingly, it seems that YouTube is again accessible to every connected Turk after the offensive video in question was removed. What’s so interesting about this story though is that Google didn’t capitulate with the Turkish government’s request to purge the video: rather, the videos were taken down for a copyright violation.
Here’s Google’s explanation on the matter.
- “We’ve received reports that some users in Turkey are once again able to access YouTube…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”
What Google’s saying here is that Turkey may have tried to get its way in regards to the offending video by submitting an onerous copyright complaint issue, resulting in the video’s takedown. Google’s skeptical of the motives of whoever submitted that complaint, and if they find there was no copyright violation, they intend on putting the video back up… even if that leads to Turkey banning YouTube all over again.
This is an interesting standoff. I wonder how it will play out. One thing’s for sure: Google seems resolved not to budge when it comes to political censorship on YouTube. God bless ‘em.
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