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Turkey to ban YouTube again?


March 7, 2014

youtubeappTurkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has suggested Turkey could ban Facebook and YouTube after elections this month, in his latest response to a series of leaks of  his private conversations on the Internet.

The remarks came as part of a warning that after the March 30th vote he would redouble his efforts against the movement of  Fethullah Gulen, a preacher and former ally turned foe with followers throughout state institutions.

He also suggested he could seek Gulen’s extradition from voluntary exile in the US.

“We will not let these companies capture the nation,” he added, referring to Facebook and YouTube, the latter of which his anonymous opponents use to place his leaked telephone conversations on the internet. Asked if he contemplated closing access to such sites, Erdogan added: “Yes, closure included.”

Turkey previously banned YouTube between 2007 and 2010 as a result of a court order over videos allegedly insulting Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the country’s founder.

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