Türkiye blocks access to Discord

Türkiye announced on Wednesday that it has blocked access to the instant messaging and social media platform Discord following a court ruling amid safety concerns related to crimes involving minors.

The ban came after public outrage caused by the murder of two young women by a 19-year-old man in Istanbul earlier this month. Content on social media showed Discord users subsequently praising the killing, News.Az reports, citing Turkish media.

Multiple reports also suggested certain groups were using the San Francisco-based platform to harass underage girls and target children through grooming, blackmail, sexual abuse, and cyberbullying.

The move by the infotech regulator, the Information Technologies and Communication Authority (BTK), came after a ruling by a court in Ankara amid "suspicion" the platform had been used for "the sexual abuse of children and obscenity."

"We are determined to protect our young people and our children... from harmful and criminal publications on social media and the internet," Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç said on social media platform X.

"We will never allow attempts to shake the foundations of our social structure," Tunç stressed.

Discord, very popular with video game fans, is also used as an internal messaging system by many firms and has become an alternative for people who have turned away from X and Facebook.

Discord, where text, audio and video can be exchanged, has some 150 million users.

News.Az