On 17 January, a court in Ankara ordered access to the popular video sharing web site YouTube to be blocked.

This same event happened in March, and the Turkish government removed the block when YouTube agreed to censor comments critical of Turkish political figures such as Ataturk.

I strongly believe that Google should, for once, stand by their “Do No Evil” slogan and refuse to cave in to this barbaric censorship.

Turkish residents can still access YouTube through web proxy sites.

Standing up to this bullying by the Turkish government would cost Google only a small portion of their short-term revenue, but it would also help to prevent such attacks in the future. If oppressive governments learn that Google will cave in to their demands, Google will constantly be besieged with similar demands. If those oppressive governments learn that Google will not cooperate in their censorship attempts, they will eventually give up those attempts.

It’s time for Google to stand by it’s slogan.  It’s time for Google to stand up for it’s users.  It’s time for Google to stand up for what is right.