Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered Twitter to be blocked out in the country last week after the microblogging site was used to spread audio files that implicate the prime minister and people close to him in corruption. The ban was ordered on the grounds that Twitter failed to remove the uploaded recording that Erdogen claimed to have been fabricated against him by his adversaries.
Although a Turkish court has already ruled out that the ban is a violation of the country's freedom of information and has ordered the telecommunications authority to restore access to Twitter in the country, The Turkish government is apparently not yet through wiping out access to social media sites in the country.
On Thursday, just a day after the court ordered to lift the ban on Twitter, Turkey has moved to stop access to Youtube in the country. While the Twitter ban was prompted by content that link the prime minister and his colleagues to corruption, the move to block out Youtube has something to do with national security.
Audio files of the country's top officials apparently including Turkey's intelligence chief Hakan Fidan, foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu and other military officials discussing military operations in Syria were uploaded to the video sharing site.
In one of the uploaded audio files, the voice of what sounded to be Fidan was heard of suggesting an option to launch an attack in Syria. "If needed, we will launch an attack there," the voice said.
The Foreign Ministry admitted that the meeting indeed took place but it was held to discuss how Turkey should respond to threats by Islamist militants against a Turkish territory in Syria. It has nonetheless pointed out that some parts of the recordings were doctored and called the act of leaking such sensitive meeting a breach to national security.
"Monitoring such a meeting of a highly confidential nature which was held at a location such as the office of the Foreign Minister, where the most sensitive security issues of the State are discussed and releasing these conversations to the public are a despicable attack, an act of espionage and a very serious crime against the national security of Turkey," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
A source from the prime minister's office said that Youtube was blocked as a precautionary measure but the ban may be lifted if the video sharing site agrees to remove the content that stirred a national security issue.
