The main problem here is not the offending video or else, the main problem is there is a monopoly in Turkish internet backbone and youtube users in Turkey use half of the total bandwidth , They dont want to improve their backbone so they are covering their behinds by banning the site with the most traffic. It's not about politics it's about money :)<p>And believe me I know this is my job.
There is a tension before something breaks or action happens
(spannungsbogen?). So I am glad that this is a major fuckup, with possible commercial backlash.<p>The previous YouTube ban was a DNS deletion from the Turkish DNSes. This was naturally avoided by people using Google's DNS anyway. Most people I know either use Google's DNS or some other open dns even if somebody set it up for them and they don't know about it.<p>And now there is a "deny all Google IPs, allow search and few other things like Maps, Reader and Picasa" ban across all Google domains.<p>This is funny and quite serious at the same time.<p>Ah, it cannot possibly have an effect on me, I think. I pay for servers in UK, Germany and USA. I can reroute myself however I want. But what about my friends... This is not a ban they can avoid easily. Oh wait... Check out my Nexus One. Bingo, all those sites don't mention it, but now I cannot enter Android Market or use any of Google's apps. The thing is almost bricked.<p>This is why things like Cynogenmod are a "Good Thing (TM)". Hey, YouTube on the Android works, which is most probably what the ban is trying to nuke. Ironic as always.<p>The reason is probably the way Google handles DNS and how it tricked the censors into banning everything while they were trying to "actually" ban YouTube IP block.<p>Now you got companies that are complaining because they cannot get into their docs.google.com. Most sites have their loading spinners stuck on spinning because you cannot reach analytics. Guess what, Google isn't just providing search anymore.<p>It maybe that it is time to react for most people now. The People. Oh wait, that includes me. Hmmmmmm.....<p><a href="http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/blackboard/benn-l.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/blackboard/benn-l.htm</a>
I live in Turkey and there's an online rumor about how the prime minister orchestrated this ban as some people were talking about his exploits in google groups etc. I can't tell if this is the real reason for the ban, but I can affirm you that if you want to have a time travel to the past (dark ages) you can visit Turkey anytime you want.
This looks to me like something I never thought would happen; it's one step worse than the usual proceedings of network expansion by "dumb-greedy" suits in charge at ISPs - just lay one cheap channel of copper, don't spend extra on fiber, then dig the lane up again when bandwidth is short and put another channel of cheap copper, then dig up again, and again, instead of just laying down fiber from the start and be done with it for years ahead for one tenth the cost of digging the lane up - but instead, these brilliant suits cut <i>all</i> their costs by just selectively choking the web infront of their customers. What an utterly backwards, bone-headed move.