Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s DNS service was cut off by Turkish ISPs this morning. The search giant received credible reports that its domain name system was intercepted by the country’s internet service providers.
As Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) explained in a new blog post, “Imagine if someone had changed out your phone book with another one, which looks pretty much the same as before, except that the listings for a few people showed the wrong phone number. That’s essentially what’s happened: Turkish ISPs have set up servers that masquerade as Google’s DNS service.”
This is not the first time the search giant faced censorship from Turkey’s government. In the last few weeks, Turkey blocked Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s video sharing service YouTube, as well as social media site Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR). Although it was reported both social websites were shut down because some of the sites content could compromise the nation’s security, others claimed it was a way to limit the internet to the nation’s public.
According to Turkey’s main media regulation organization Radio and Television Supreme Council, “It is seen as appropriate that a temporary broadcast ban be implemented on the voice recordings on social media and alleged to be between the foreign minister, the head of the National Intelligence Agency and military officials.”
The nation’s elite politicians were pummeled with wiretap leaks from unknown groups. The leaks were also distributed on the internet. Until the middle of last week, all of the wiretap recordings were of private phone conversations involving the country’s prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his inner circle, main corporate executives, and other government figures.
Prime minister Erdogan said some of the recordings were as he called it, “immorally edited material”. Examples of such recordings include one conversation with a man who sounds like the country’s prime minister supposedly telling his son to hide tens of millions in cash from investigators. Interestingly enough, Erdogan did confirm the authenticity of other recordings.
