Youtube remains blocked in Turkey
The social networking site Twitter today blocked access to two of its pages in Turkey that are accused by the country's Islamic-conservative government of leaking Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's telephone communications, implicating him and his inner circle in corruption cases.
This decision was made following contacts last week in Turkey between two representatives of the American company, whose website had been blocked for ten days until the Supreme Court ordered the lifting of the blockade.
The two pages in question broadcast daily, during the election campaign for the March 30 municipal elections, recorded telephone communications that implicated members of the government and Erdogan himself in a corruption scandal.
At the same time, however, Twitter announced again today that it will not give in to Ankara's demands and will not give Turkish authorities "information about account users simply because a government requests it.".
Erdogan had demanded that Twitter open a liaison office in Turkey and pay taxes, but the company refused, pointing out that it cannot operate an office in a country where access to its website is prohibited.
YouTube has been blocked in Turkey since March 28, following the release of a recorded, secret meeting between Turkish officials discussing a possible military intervention in neighboring Syria. Negotiations with the Turkish government on this issue appear to have stalled, pending a ruling by the Constitutional Court.
Source: newsbeast.gr
