This is the site that appears when residents of Turkey attempt to go to YouTube, the popular video sharing site owned by Google. The text, translated to English, reads “Access to www.youtube.com site has been suspended in accordance with decision no: 2007/384 dated 06.03.2007 of Istanbul First Criminal Peace Court.”
The reason for the ban: a video, which has now been taken down, showing Greeks criticizing Turkey and insulting Turkey’s national flag and founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. A good background story is here, and the news broke on this site (in Turkish only).
All public internet access in Turkey is provided by Turk Telecom via adsl, so the takedown is relatively simple.
A group of Turkish bloggers has said that they will try to fight this in Turkey, and get YouTube reinstated. See the Times for more information.
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We must fight back.
Step 1) Ban all use of “Turkey Day.”
Someone just asked me if SplashCast players would display YouTube videos in Turkey - I’m curious. If you’re in Turkey give this URL a try and let me know: http://web.splashcast.net/cata.....OAMR6025DP
Nope, in Turkey now, embeds won’t work either. Only way to access is through proxy - fairly simple yet impeding fix, sense the internet here is awful… wait am i allowed to insult turk internet? i didn’t mean it! turk telecom is the best!
Luckily YT is now a Google property, it’s going to take their deep pockets to sustain and sort out the continuing mine fields they find themselves in.
It just go to show if you do one thing right, once and it’s a big one (making search a little better and profiting from it) you can do everything else wrong or stumble with it and your cash cow can get you through.
Practically everything Big G has done since search (and their search is flawed now) has been a failure or is not the markeet leader.
Still I’d love that Jet!
Baz
Eat more chicken, that’ll show em…
it is funny not to be able to reach yt now. (i am from Turkey). We can’t be sentenced to be without ‘youtube’ just because of an idiot person’s insults. It is really funny. But Youtube also has mistake. What? Can’t they delete videos which are with full of hate toward persons or nations? Google bought it and i don’t believe they have even enough editors at all! All videos must be checked out. It is difficult but not impossible for a big company. And the process for ‘flag it’ thing is too slow, i think.
Another news is as it follows; it has been announced that if Youtube deletes such videos, people from Turkey will be able to reach the site soon.
By the way, YT is the 7th most visited site in Turkey according to alexa.
Marshall, i couldn’t see the video in that link but have seen some other videos from other parts of the site.
Lots of issues here:
1. The Greek soldiers who were singing those songs are complete morons.
2. YouTube should not take this down, things like these should be surfaced and addressed
3. Turkey might have done this in order to not create further instability because of the video, not to punish YouTube. It’s a complicated matter, we can’t just dismiss it as idiotic.
Michael (from Greece)
Muslim nations are going to continue to have a real problem with modernity if their response to every insult, perceived or real, is this kind of blind, seething rage.
I can tell you that it has nothing to do with being muslim nation or not, Randall…
If you had known what people think about Ataturk here, you wouldn’t think so.
Good points Michael…
I really don’t understand what kind of pleasure people get when they insult each other in cyber world.. (Of course i don’t mean they should get pleasure in real life lol)
A country bans all access to a web site, one of the biggest web sites in the world nonetheless, just because someone who is unaffiliated with the company that owns the web site posted something offensive? Wow……….. it’s hard to believe how uptight some people are.
woah… Turkey is so web1.0!
I am Greek, living in Athens. I of course dislike any hate videos. I really hope this shows to the world what Turkey is and what is the way of thinking.
This decision doesn’t represent our way of thinking, Nicos. If you surf around Turkish bloggers, you will notice that… You sound too ’supreme’ btw.
Would have been interesting to see if they could have done this had they been part of the EU.
That should go over well for their bid to join the EU. Not that everyone in Europe is huge Google fans but still.
India came close to banning Youtube because of a controversial Gandhi pole-dance video. Most legal systems have trouble dealing with user-generated controversies.
Here’s the video in case you’re curious …
The Gandhi video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?e.....E9_sBZHu1E
“I can tell you that it has nothing to do with being muslim nation or not, Randall…If you had known what people think about Ataturk here, you wouldn’t think so.”
The specific issue has nothing to do with Islam, but the general sense being displayed here that it’s a reasonable thing to ban “heretical” dissenting speech is certainly informed by the Islamic sensibilities in Turkey.
Turkey is currently trying very hard to become a member of the European Union. A number of European countries have reservations about this - although it’s nothing to do with their being ‘too Muslim’, you understand. Heaven forbid!
This sort of over-reaction isn’t going to help Turkey’s cause.
I caught myself up on the issue with the article. Still seems ridiculous to me. And Nikos don’t use this to justify any absurd belief you have about Turkish people. That’s just retarded.
As a follow up, I think it’s shocking that the EU would even consider adding a country where you can end up in jail for talking about a genocide that that country perpetrated against another people. Turkey simply does not share the West’s modern values.
“I really hope this shows to the world what Turkey is and what is the way of thinking.”
“And Nikos don’t use this to justify any absurd belief you have about Turkish people. That’s just retarded.”
I fail to see the problem with pointing out, as is plainly evident, that the way of thinking in Turkey is to ban negative speech about Ataturk, “Turkishness”, or any speech about the Armenian genocide.
And these guys wanna join our European Union. Turkey doesnt even know the meaning of the word democracy. Countries, cultures and people insult each other wheter they want it or not. Deal with it or get left back in stone age sheepfuckers! (see, an insult! Maybe Turkey must ban Tech Crunch as well now?)
Kane, i am sorry to say that but you are a complete moron, Turks dont know the meaning of democracy? They are not educated? but european urself don’t even know how to comment without cursing. Turk sheep fuckers? Hmmm and you? You are a pig suckerrrrrrrr.
So easy to make generalizations, Kane huh?! You and people like you just don’t want to see EU supporters in Turkey. You just look at empty side of the glass. There are many people who want ‘real democracy’ in Turkey. But if you mean ‘the invasion’ with the word ‘democracy’, thanks, let it be yours.
All the Turkish government has accomplished is to make the country look ridiculous.
well-said Tom!
@Randall Z, what the f*ck does the fact that Turkey is a “Muslim nation” has to do with the problem? But I guess the tolerance where you live is in no way different from where I live here in Balkans.
@topic I guess Youtube didn’t deleted the video, because they have not yet opened the political videos section in the “Department of deletion”. They first had to fill porn sections, music video sections, then Champions league sections.
Greetings from Bulgaria.
maybe their teenagers will do something useful with their time and not sit all day and watch videos of lonely girl….
“@Randall Z, what the f*ck does the fact that Turkey is a “Muslim nation” has to do with the problem?”
It has everything to do with the general attitude of aggressively attempting to punish others’ “blasphemy.”
I have no problem with whatever values Turkey chooses to promote within its own borders, however alien they are to me. I just pointed out that these values are at odds with those of the West, and will certainly cause Turkey difficulties in their dealings with Europe and the rest of the western world.
Hi Randall Z,
This is TechCrunch, not LGF. Thanks.
Those Turkies!
Every hates the turks. They invaded Greece on countless occasions and they tried to wipe the Armenians off the planet during the 1914-1918 Armenian Genocide.
Wow. Don’t think that was a good idea.
Totally weird
IMHO
I’m happy I live someplace where I can access any website I want.
Rick, only people like you hate Turkish people. It is just easy to talk about such things.
Rick - that’s a broad statement. I’m certainly not in that group. All of our ancestors perpetrated lots of atrocities.
Still, they are clearly stuck between Europe and the middle east, culturally as well as geographically.
Ok, let me get this straight…
So not only did the Greek guys make fun of Turkey, but they also managed to get Youtube blocked on the whole country.
To me, this is analogous of Brazilians posting a video making fun of Argentinians and then getting Youtube blocked in Argentina. It’s definitely a win-win situation, and would encourage more hate-videos.
Not that I think hate speech is a good thing, but I’m just trying to show how taking Youtube down will have the opposite effect that Turkey wants.
First let me start out by saying “ben yalniz biraz turkce konusabiliyorum”. Aside from that I don’t think Turkey should have banned Youtube. But I don’t think the fact that they did gives us a right to bash them as a country. I support their efforts to become a part of the EU, especially if helps increase the prosperity for their people.
So Brazil or China censoring isn’t religious, but Turkey (especially considering the video in question didn’t have anything to do with religion) it must be a religious play.
It was not a smart thing to do.
Just like banning the movie “Midnight Express”. I am a Turk and found the chance see this movie in USA, and still haven’t figured out why the movie was banned in my country.
It’s funny, however, how Turk-Bashers swarm to this sort of topics to puch their adgendas. Get over it!
Everybody did something in their past. Show me one country that is pure and innocent!
During the World War I, when Turkish men all over the country joined army to fight the war, Armenians, whom have lived peacefully among us for centuries, have attacked our menless villages, robbed them and raped our women. When the war was over we, possibly, retaliated against them. That’s your so-called Armenian Genocide. Consider this as America’s reply to Pearl Habor. Of course, ours was nearly as drastic as America’s and we were in war with the Armenians.
Oh well, I am tried now.
Just a few points.
-Youtube got banned probably because of some outdated law. Many countries face challenges with keeping their laws up-to-date for new technologies. Even in the US we have high-tech legal problems: how to count the votes in Florida? What to do with stem cell research? etc… If Turkey joins the EU, that will be an incentive to update these laws.
-Rick, Turks did not invade Greece on countless occasions, Greece was part of the Ottoman Empire for 600 years. So there was only 1 occasion.
The so-called Armenian Genocide is one the greatest hoaxes of the past century, yet, it’s a good way to encourage rich Diaspora Armenians in LA and France to donate money to poverty-ridden Armenia. If Turkey ever wanted to eliminate any nation, it would have done so, during the 600 years of power, not when it was collapsing, and it would not have let them speak their own language or practice their own religion. The Armenian Patriarchate itself was founded by the Turks. The Turkish Sultan founded the Armenian Patriarchate and also, Turks wouldn’t have done other acts of kindness to save people of other nations: wouldn’t have saved Jews from the Spanish Inquisition in 1492, or from the Nazis in 1945 or the Kurdish Peshmerges from Saddam Hussain in 1990s…
Armenians just in 1990s, attacked Azerbaijanis and created an ethnic enclave in Karabakh. They tried to do the same in Eastern Turkey, by allying with the invading Russian forces in 1914-1918 (WWI). So the Ottoman Parliament-which included Armenians- decided to relocate these people until the war was over. Armenians in Istanbul or other cities were not touched, only the ones that were in proximity to the Russian forces were moved. And this is what they call a genocide. I particularly like the fake movies and photoshopped photos and Google Adwords campaigns promoting the Armenian Genocide very high tech.
The truth is not seems as this.Turkey don’t say anything to youtube, in fact Turktelekom the only one internet service provider in Turkey bans it, everybody must use turktelekoms adsl cuz its only one . and when they ban the websites you cant use the sites , they ban everything that it use by many people like as thepiratebay. megaupload etc. And the other side . i think and im sure . this ban is a work of Doğan Online they have a youtube clone sites in turkey pikniktube.com its a youtube clone and run by this company and azbuz.com its a clone also , ,and ihave read they said on their newspaper hurriyet.com.tr in 2007 the azbuz.com teh their clone sites will be one in Turkey. .so they make news for ban youtube and shows on their tv channnels .. they want to close yotube cuz they have youtube clone .. Doğan Online is a evil company
Guys I cant belıeve this….. This is wrong really wrong…..
I am not happy about this as a Turkish citizen!
Stambouliote,
Thats really great post. I am a Turkish and living in Turkey ..of course cant connect to youtube for a day and even tried to use numerous browser-based anonymity websites.
Anyway, i’d like to quote somethings from your post.
“If Turkey joins the EU, that will be an incentive to update these laws.”
and I’d like to ask a question to everyone that
Should we update our laws because of EU or Turkish people who live in Turkey?
The real shame here is that Turks will have to wait until a rerun of The Family Guy to see the “prom night dumpster baby” bit again… hmmm do you think they get FOX?
hi!how are you.
“The so-called Armenian Genocide is one the greatest hoaxes of the past century”
Hope you don’t live in France!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6043730.stm
The difference between other atrocities and the Turk’s deliberate attempt to wipe out the entire Armenian race, is that other countries such as Germany with the Holocaust were courageous enough to admit it and apologized for their crime. Whereas Turkey to this day denies it every occurred and hides behind its reason of small massacres in a war between the two countries at the time. Where did the 1.5million Armenians disappear to? The more the truth is denied, the more people will rally to fight for the cause. Why is it a criminal offence (Article 301) to bring these things up? For what part of “Turkishness” was Hrant Dink murdered and the perpetrator proudly holding up the Turkish flag with smiling police officers during the “interrogation”?
Seems censoring democracy and free speech are non existent characteristics of a backwards society. Is blocking YouTube just because some Greeks made a video about Turks rational in this modern information age?
The world thinks it is time to grow up and time to accept the truth
m johnson, nice non-Armenian name, good job on selecting a good pseudonym.
If a country decides to kill its own people, it doesn’t kill half of them and love the rest. Turks and Armenians live happily in Turkey and have been living together for the past 1000 years. At the end of the Ottoman Empire, the Armenians tried to separate and create their own country but failed. That’s the story. The numbers are fictitious, made up, and there is no proof. If 1.5 million people were killed, you would need quite a space to hide the bones. Where are the bones? The reality is, Armenians are a small population in this world, and a genocide is the best way to keep the culture alive, and it’s being done at the expense of the Turks.
Hrant Dink was killed by a fascist fanatic group, and it is sad. Hundreds of thousands of Turks marched down the streets of Istanbul and showed their sorrow for such an event. That is not the attitude towards Armenians in Turkey, in fact, according to the Armenian Patriarchate, 50.000 Armenians from Armenia now work and live and earn their primary income while working in Turkey although I believe there are no diplomatic ties between Armenia and Turkey.
Blocking YouTube in Turkey, was a competitive move by Dogan Holding, which is a media conglomorate which holds most of the media in Turkey. They have started buying, investing, and building crappy websites to take over the Internet market in Turkey, to increase their overall control and valuation for a potential sale. They have a product called Pikniktube.com which sucks, this was a way to kill the competition.
Let’s not attack Turkey with this Armenian Genocide hoax each time something bad happens in Turkey.
Also, Armenian-state-sponsored terrorist organization ASALA killed all of Turkey’s diplomats and ambassadors in Europe and in the United States in 1960s. Diplomats killed by Armenia-sponsored terrorist organization ASALA
This is how modern Armenians are.
Also, the law they passed in France last year, is in itself a disaster for freedom of speech in France. In France, Switzerland, if you deny the Armenian Genocide, you can lose your job, you can get imprisoned. And Armenian Genocide is not even a proven fact, and this blocks historians from even discussing whether it happened or not.
Try Gizlio.com
Click on my name for link for everyone in Turkey