Turkish PM threatens to ban Facebook, YouTube

ANKARA: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is fighting a corruption scandal, has threatened further steps to censor the Internet, including shutting down Facebook and YouTube.

His comments late Thursday came as the Internet has carried incriminating recordings of allegedly wiretapped telephone conversations, including one purported to be of Erdogan instructing his son to dispose of large amounts of money from a residence during a police graft probe.

Erdogan has acknowledged some of the recordings but has said others were fabricated. He accuses followers of a U.S.-based Muslim cleric of orchestrating the corruption allegations to damage his government ahead of critical local elections on March 30.

Last month, the government changed laws to expand its controls over the Internet, sparking protests.