Türkiye restricts Discord access over child safety concerns, crime issues

ANKARA

Türkiye imposed a ban on Discord early on Oct. 9 over child abuse concerns as the instant messaging platform refused to share certain IP addresses with Turkish authorities, the transport and infrastructure minister has said.

The move by Türkiye’s communications authority came after a ruling by a court in the capital Ankara amid suspicion the platform had been used for "the sexual abuse of children and obscenity.”

"This is a completely closed system. You can’t give a brief look as you please, nor can our security forces conduct investigations there,” Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu said while speaking to reporters on Oct. 9.

Investigations can proceed only when a user of the platform informs security forces, he said.

"Particularly for families, we have no way of knowing what's going on in this place where we have no access. As Discord refused to share its information, including IP addresses and content, with our security forces, we were compelled to impose a block," the minister explained.

He also noted that a similar review is ongoing regarding the streaming platform Twitch, which has also been subject to similar complaints.

In a separate statement on Oct. 9, Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç announced that penalties for crimes committed on all platforms will be increased.

Hours prior to the access ban, Tunç had announced the initiation of investigations into various social media and network providers harboring criminal content, without naming them.

The prohibition of Discord followed escalating public outrage since Oct. 4, after a 19-year-old man brutally murdered two girls of his own age in Istanbul. Investigations revealed that the perpetrator communicated through accounts associated with violence and criminality across multiple social media platforms.

Media reports also indicated that Discord users had posted messages hailing the double murder, while others had been using the platform to harass underage girls.

Thousands of Turkish social media users called for Discord's prohibition, citing the frequent appearance of content that pushes children and adolescents to become either victims or perpetrators of crimes.

In a separate incident involving the platform, police detained two children for disseminating criminal elements within groups on Telegram and Discord, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said.

The content shared in these groups included “child obscenity, insults against the police and martyrs and elements derogatory to religious values,” the minister explained.

The questioning of the two children will be conducted under the supervision of a psychologist, he added.

Discord, a U.S.-based platform that is 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.

Following similar allegations of child abuse, Turkish authorities obstructed access to the online gaming platform Roblox in August.