Turkey has blocked access to YouTube

By Sam Barsanti | March 27, 2014 | 8:38pm

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Preventing its citizens from partaking in such cultural milestones as Keyboard Cat, Chocolate Rain, and an important platform for free speech and stuff, the government of Turkey has blocked access to YouTube within its country. As reported by Variety, the move comes after someone uploaded a pair of videos to the site that apparently revealed secret plans to take military action against “Jihadist militants in Syria.” An official government statement refers to whoever uploaded these videos as “enemies of our state and our nation,” which suggests it’s taking this pretty seriously—also evidenced by the fact that it’s literally trying to stop the entire country from using YouTube.

Turkey similarly blocked access to Twitter last week, after users were found accusing its government of being corrupt (which is certainly one way to refute such claims). Basically, this all comes down to the Turkish government not being happy with the fact that its people are able to use the Internet to express their dislike of how the country is being run. Here at The A.V. Club, we’d just like to point out that we’re simply reporting on this, not actively criticizing it, lest any of our readers in Turkey miss out on being able to read our review of Prince Harry’s South Pole Heroes.