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Turkiye blocks access to Discord, amid safety concerns over minors

October 9, 2024 at 8:22 pm

The Discord logo on a laptop computer arranged in the Brooklyn borough of New York, US, on Friday, Nov. 18, 2022 [Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images]

Turkiye has blocked access to the social media platform, Discord, amid alleged safety concerns over crimes against minors.

According to Turkiye’s Information Technologies and Communication Authority (BTK), its move to ban Discord was a result of a ruling by a court in Ankara regarding “suspicion” that the platform had been used for “the sexual abuse of children and obscenity”.

Aside from reports indicating that Discord is being used en masse to harass underage girls and target children through grooming, blackmail, sexual abuse and cyber-bullying, much of the outrage was reportedly sparked by some of its users praising a 19-year-old man’s murder of two young women in Istanbul earlier this month.

Since then, concern has been expressed amongst Turkish officials regarding the lack of accountability the platform faces at the hands of the Turkish government, with Ankara failing to gain any significant control over the site and its use.

READ: Erdogan slams ‘digital fascism’ after Turkiye blocks Instagram

Following the ban, Justice Minister, Yılmaz Tunc, stated on X that “We are determined to protect our young people and our children … from harmful and criminal publications on social media and the internet.” He added that “We will never allow attempts to shake the foundations of our social structure.”

Transport and Infrastructure Minister, Abdulkadir Uraloglu, also emphasised to reporters in parliament on Wednesday that Turkish authorities had difficulty in monitoring Discord and intervening to combat any illegal content due to the private nature of the platform.

“Security personnel cannot go through the content. We can only intervene when users complain to us about content shared there”, he stated. “Since Discord refuses to share its own information, including IP addresses and content, with our security units, we were forced to block access”.