Turkish authorities have blocked access to the popular instant-messaging platform Discord after concerns were raised that the app was being used to target children for grooming, blackmail and cyberbullying. The move comes after the US-based platform also found itself banned in Russia this week.
Türkiye’s Information Technologies and Communication Authority (BTK) officially published the access-ban decision on its website on Wednesday following a ruling by the Ankara First Criminal Court of Peace.
Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc has explained that the court has ordered all publications on the social media platform to be removed and for access to the website to be restricted in the country, due, he explained, to “sufficient suspicion that the crimes of ‘child sexual abuse and obscenity’” had been committed using Discord.
“We are determined to protect our youth and children, the assurance of our future, from the harmful publications of social media and the internet that constitute crimes. We will never allow attempts to shake the foundations of our social structure.” Tunc wrote in a post on X.
Discord found itself in the crosshairs of Turkish regulators after a 19-year-old man murdered two women last week. After the incident, Turkish media reported that some users on Discord were praising the double murder, which subsequently led to public outrage against certain communities on the platform.
Calls to regulate it had also been prompted by media reports that certain Discord users had been forming groups intended to target children and teenagers for grooming, blackmail and bullying.
Türkiye’s ban of the US-based messenger service comes after Russia’s media watchdog Roskomnadzor also issued a ban on the platform, on Tuesday. According to the ruling, access to Discord has been restricted due to its “violation of the requirements of Russian legislation” and to its refusal to remove “illegal information.”
Roskomnadzor has demanded that the platform remove nearly 950 posts that are said to contain illegal content such as calls for suicide, extremism, sexual abuse of children and “LGBT propaganda.”
The watchdog has explained to RT that the demands to remove such content is meant to “prevent the use of the messenger for terrorist and extremist purposes, the recruitment of citizens to commit terrorist and extremist acts, and the sale of drugs.”