Turkey blocks Discord over child safety, crime concerns

Ankara: Turkey blocked access to the messaging platform Discord on Wednesday following a court ruling amid concerns over platform safety and crimes involving minors.

The Information Technologies and Communication Authority, the country’s infotech regulator, published the decision to impose the ban on its website.

Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said an Ankara court had found sufficient grounds for suspicion of “child sexual abuse and obscenity” to justify the move, Xinhua news agency reported.

“We are committed to protecting our youth and children from harmful content on social media and the internet that promotes criminal activity. We will not tolerate attempts to undermine our social structure,” Tunc said on the social media platform X.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on X that police had detained two minors for distributing criminal content in groups on Telegram and Discord.

The decision comes after public outrage over the murder of two women by a 19-year-old man earlier this month, with offensive content related to femicide, including praise for the killings, posted on Discord.

–IANS