Türkiye bans Discord over alleged security risks, leaving users and digital rights advocates questioning the decision’s impact on communication freedom.
Turkish authorities have restricted access to the widely-used instant messaging app Discord following concerns that it was being exploited for child grooming, blackmail, and cyberbullying. This decision follows a similar action in Russia where the US-based platform has also been banned this week.
Türkiye’s Information Technologies and Communication Authority (BTK) officially announced the access-ban decision on its website Wednesday, following a ruling by the Ankara First Criminal Court of Peace.
Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc announced that the court has mandated the removal of all content on a particular social media platform and imposed restrictions on access to its website within the country. He stated this action was taken due to “sufficient suspicion” that Discord had been used in committing crimes related to ‘child sexual abuse and obscenity.’
In a post on X, Tunc expressed their commitment to safeguarding our youth and children—who are the promise of our future—from harmful social media and internet publications that constitute crimes. They emphasized they would never permit any attempts to destabilize the foundations of our societal structure.
READ ALSO:Musk Accuses Democrats of Attempting to Curb Free Speech
Discord came under scrutiny from Turkish regulators following the murder of two women by a 19-year-old man last week. In the aftermath, reports surfaced in Turkish media that some Discord users were glorifying the double homicide, sparking public outrage against specific communities on the platform.
Calls for regulation were also spurred by media reports revealing that some Discord users had been forming groups to target children and teenagers for grooming, blackmail, and bullying.
Türkiye’s ban on the US-based messaging service follows a similar action by Russia’s media watchdog, Roskomnadzor, which blocked the platform on Tuesday. The ruling states that access to Discord has been restricted due to its “violation of Russian legislative requirements” and its refusal to remove “illegal information.”
Roskomnadzor has requested the removal of almost 950 posts from the platform, citing their inclusion of illegal content like calls for suicide, extremism, child sexual abuse material, and “LGBT propaganda.”
The watchdog has informed RT that the request to remove such content aims to “prevent the use of the messenger for terrorist and extremist purposes, recruiting citizens for these acts, and selling drugs.”
