Turkey Bans Google Services Including YouTube

Turkey has now blocked/banned Google Services. This indefinite ban on Google Services include Google Docs, YouTube etc.

Turkey’s Telecommunications Presidency released an official statement on Friday regarding this. The statement read “Turkey has blocked access to some Google IP (Internet Protocol) addresses “because of legal reasons”.

The Statement also added that some Google Services will be completely inaccessible or will take long time to load. Translation and Document Sharing Sites of Google have got an indefinite ban along with YouTube and Facebook. Other services such as AppEngine, FeedBurner, Analytics etc have also been reportedly banned.

YouTube was banned before in 2008 for alleged insults against Turkish Republic founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. But many tech critics feel that banning an entire site for a single video isn’t appropriate.

But Turkey ISPs have gone one step ahead by banning most of the Google Services for this reason. Turkey Government says that they have banned Google Services for Legal Reasons.

Turkey also clarifies that by banning Google Services they are not trying to punish Google but the individual who uploaded the video on YouTube. When some of the services of Google are accessed by people, Turkey ISPs have made a redirection page and says that “Access to this site is banned by court order”.