YouTube, Twitter blocked in Turkey after court decision

Access to Twitter and video-sharing website YouTube were blocked in Turkey on Monday following a court decision based on complaints from individuals, a source in Turkey’s telecoms industry said. Turkey temporarily blocked Twitter and Youtube in the run-up to local elections in March 2014, after audio recordings purportedly showing corruption in then-Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s inner circle were leaked on their sites. An earlier **report** suggests that Turkey had filed over five times more content removal requests to Twitter than any other country in the second half of 2014, data published by the micro-blogging site had showed. Twitter’s transparency report showed Turkey filed 477 content removal requests between July and December, an increase of more than 150 percent compared to the first six months of 2014. Russia and Germany followed with 91 and 43 removal requests respectively. Overall, government requests for removal of material were up by 40 percent. Turkey temporarily blocked Twitter and Youtube in the run-up to local elections last March, after audio recordings purportedly showing corruption in Erdogan’s inner circle were leaked on their sites. The decision caused a public uproar and drew heavy international criticism. With inputs from Reuters