INTERNET LAW - Another Internet Firm is Coerced into Changing its Website

The video-sharing company YouTube has been the latest Internet firm forced to modify its site to comply with laws in a particular country. Earlier this month, an Istanbul (Turkey) court ordered local Internet Service Providers to block access to YouTube. The Court adopted the decision after videos deemed insulting to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the nation's founder, were uploaded into the site. The court maintained the ruling until YouTube removed said videos. Insulting Ataturk is punishable by imprisonment in Turkey.

 YouTube's parent company Google has had to give into online censorship in order to be able to operate in countries such as China. The Open Net Initiative, which monitors Internet filtering, claims more than 20 countries actively block citizen access to the Internet, including, in recent months, Iran and Brazil.  Iran's ISPs have blocked access to YouTube for "immoral" content since December. For a few days, Brazil blocked access to the site due to a video considered defamatory to a Brazilian fashion model.

 "Blocking all access to a video-sharing site because of a few videos that are considered offensive is a radical and inappropriate measure," representatives from Reporters Without Borders, advocates for press freedom, state in a written statement. Paul Doany, head of Turk Telekom, Turkey's leading ISP, says: "We are not in a position to say if the YouTube video was insulting, we just respect the court's decision." Some of the videos in question showed a Turkish flag and a portrait of Ataturk covered with insults. They were reportedly part of a "virtual war" between Turkish and Greek nationalists.