Google faces a fresh ban on YouTube in Turkey, after reinstating videos the country considers offensive just days after a two-year ban was lifted.
The firm is due to meet with Turkey’s web enforcer, the Telecommunications Transmission Directorate, in the coming days to discuss the clips, but has been warned that new restrictions could be placed on YouTube in the country.
Turkey lifted a ban on YouTube over the weekend - imposed when Google refused to remove the offensive clips from its global sites in 2008 -, after local firms used Google’s copyright infringement system to drop the clips from all YouTube sites, WSJ.com reports.
A court has ruled the two clips are offensive to Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, however Google said it restored the clips to non-Turkish sites because they don’t infringe copyright.
“We found the videos were not copyright infringing, so we have put them back up, though they continue to be restricted within Turkey,” Google told the Journal.
“We hope very much that our users in Turkey can continue to enjoy YouTube.”
Turkish law allows the state to ban websites if they contain material on banned topics ranging from obscenity to insulting Atatürk.