Turkish president lends support to overturn ban on Google services

President Gul used his Twitter account to rail against a government-imposed ban on certain IP addresses Google uses, which have shut down or severely limited web users’ access to services such as YouTube, Google Analytics, Docs, Translate and Books, among others.

In a series of messages, Gul expressed his opposition to the move. He said he had instructed those responsible for implementing the restrictions to find a solution.

Speaking last week, Google said the access problems appeared to be linked to an ongoing ban on YouTube in the country. The ban dates back to 2007, when the government took offence to a video posted on the site that allegedly insulted Turkey’s founding father Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Reports have suggested that as part of its efforts to block YouTube, the Turkish government attempted a blanket ban of a range of IP addresses. Google Analytics – one of the affected services – is a free tool for website owners to monitor user activity on their pages.