Turkey officially bans Discord over child abuse and crimes

According to the Turkish Information Technologies and Communication Authority (BKT), the popular messaging app Discord is banned permanently from operating in the country.  

After a ruling by Ankara 1st Peace Court, a judge ruled a complete ban on the instant messaging app in the country. The ban was released on Turkey’s BKT website, and it stated that the ban was due to sexual abuse of children, harassment, blackmail and crypto crimes. 

Discord ban is a result of blackmail and murder 

Turkey started a judicial investigation against criminal content on social media platforms, specifically, Discord and Telegram. Yilmaz Tunc, a Turkish Justice Minister and member of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s cabinet announced the investigation. He stated restrictions and bandwidth throttling will be applied to any social platform that does not follow the new rules. 

The minister asserts the banning decision to protect children from any potential online danger. In a post on X, he said “We are determined to protect our youth and children, the guarantee of our future, from harmful criminal content on social media and the internet.” He added, “We will never allow attempts to undermine the foundations of our social structure.”

Ankara Cumhuriyet Başsavcılığının talebi üzerine Ankara 1. Sulh Ceza Hakimliği’nce Discord isimli sosyal medya platformuna 5651 Sayılı ‘İnternet Ortamında Yapılan Yayınların Düzenlenmesi ve Bu Yayınlar Yoluyla İşlenen Suçlarla Mücadele Edilmesi Hakkında Kanun’un 8/1 maddesinde…

— Yılmaz TUNÇ (@yilmaztunc) October 8, 2024

Right after the minister’s statement, a message started appearing stating, “Access to discord.com has been restricted by the Ankara 1st Criminal Court of Peace with the decision dated 09.10.2024 and numbered 2024/12907 D.”

The ban was fuelled by the outrage of Turkish people after a 19-year-old man killed two women in Istanbul. The murder was linked to Discord conversations that encouraged violence and illegal behavior. 

Some of the Discord users spoke about murder and death but categorized those conversations under dark humor. The investigation also found that some users earned their living by blackmailing people using visual content. 

Turkey isn’t the first country to ban Discord. The popular messaging app was banned in Russia, China, Iran, UAE and Oman.

Discord is popular amongst gamers and crypto enthusiasts worldwide. The instant messaging app came under scrutiny before, along with other social media platforms in the United States. Last year, Discord’s CEO Jason Citron attended a hearing where the US senators questioned the safety of children from online abuse. Citron testified along with Mark Zuckerberg and other executives representing several social media networks, including X, Snapchat, and TikTok.