Turkey has moved to block access to YouTube, a
day after a court ordered the suspension of a ban on Twitter, which PM Recep
Tayyip Erdogan backed.
The telecoms authority (TIB) said it had taken
an "administrative measure" against the site but another report
suggests that talks are under way.
Some users found access blocked while others
could still use the site.
Earlier, what appeared to be a leaked audio
recording of Turkish officials discussing Syria appeared on YouTube.
It relates to a discussion of possible
military operations in Syria, which was apparently attended by Turkey's
intelligence chief, its foreign minister and the deputy head of the armed
forces.
Reuters news agency, which examined the
recording, said it could not verify its authenticity but it was potentially the
most damaging purported leak so far as it appeared to have originated from the
bugging of a highly confidential and sensitive conversation.
Mr Erdogan, who faces important local
elections on Sunday, accuses social media of spreading misinformation and
suggested earlier that bans could be applied to both YouTube and Facebook.
'Villainous' leak
In its statement, the TIB said: "After
technical analysis and legal consideration.... an administrative measure has
been taken for this website."
As conflicting reports emerged over the
blockage, the search engine Google, which owns YouTube, confirmed that some
users were unable to access YouTube in Turkey.
"There is no technical issue on our side
and we're looking into the situation," a Google Inc spokesperson said in a
statement to Reuters.
The term #youtubeblockedinturkey has begun
trending worldwide on Twitter.
At a rally in the south-eastern city of
Diyarbakir on Thursday, Mr Erdogan appeared to confirm the latest audio leak
was genuine.
"They even leaked a national security
meeting," he said. "This is villainous, this is dishonesty... Who are
you serving by doing audio surveillance of such an important meeting?"
On Wednesday, a court in the capital, Ankara,
ordered the TIB to lift its ban on Twitter, but it could be weeks before the
order takes effect.
Twitter itself has filed a challenge to the
access ban. It said it was concerned about a court order to suspend an account
which had accused a former minister of corruption.
No comments:
Post a Comment