Turkey: "Unbanning" of YouTube Short-Lived Indeed

Less than a week after the media declared YouTube accessible in Turkey, the country has again blocked the site, this time in response to a video purportedly showing former opposition leader Deniz Baykal in a hotel room with a woman who is not his wife.

Yesterday, the OpenNet Initiative asked, in a blog post, if Turkey's unbanning of YouTube would be short-lived: Indeed, it was. As PC Magazine reports:

On Tuesday night, a Turkish court banned YouTube again, this time over an old video purportedly showing former opposition leader Deniz Baykal in a hotel room with someone other than his wife. Baykal was forced to resign over the video in May, according to The Guardian.

Scott Rubin, Google's head of public policy and communications strategy for EMEA, said the company was investigating the reported ban.

"As always, we are open to discussing with Turkish authorities any concerns they may have about our services. If there are videos that they-or anyone else-believe may violate our Community Guidelines, it's easy to flag the video," Rubin said.