Turkey Blocks Discord After Court Cites Suspected Crimes On Platform

Turkey has blocked access to the messaging platform Discord, following a court decision after the company refused to share information requested by Ankara, Turkish authorities said on Wednesday, according to Reuters.

Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc stated that an Ankara court blocked Discord in Turkey based on suspicion that crimes of “child sexual abuse and obscenity” had been committed by users on the platform, Reuters reported.

The ban came after posts surfaced on Discord praising a young man who had killed two women earlier this month. The incident triggered outrage on social media and renewed calls for stricter regulations, Bloomberg noted.

Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu pointed out that Discord’s nature made it difficult for authorities to monitor and intervene when illegal content is shared, Reuters said.

“Security personnel cannot go through the content. We can only intervene when users complain to us about content shared there,” he told reporters in parliament, as reported by Reuters.

“Since Discord refuses to share its own information, including IP addresses and content, with our security units, we were forced to block access,” Uraloglu added, according to Reuters.

Turkey has a history of swiftly restricting access to websites, previously blocking platforms such as X, YouTube, and Facebook, Bloomberg reported.

In August, Turkey banned the video game platform Roblox, citing harmful content for children, and also blocked Instagram for several days.

This restriction comes after Russia blocked Discord on Tuesday. According to TASS, Russian authorities stated:

“The access to the Discord is being restricted in connection of violation of requirements of Russian laws, compliance with which is required to prevent the use of the messenger for terrorist and extremist services, recruitment of citizens to commit them, for drug sales, and in connection with unlawful information posting.”

Last week, Reuters reported that Russia had ordered the deletion of about 1,000 items from Discord, including content related to child pornography, extremism, and pro-drug messaging. The Moscow Times (TMT) reported that Discord failed to comply with the order.

In a statement on its website Tuesday, Discord acknowledged it is “aware of reports of Discord being unreachable” in certain countries and is actively investigating the matter.