Turkey has blocked access to the instant messaging platform Discord, following a court decision that came after the company refused to comply with information requests from the government, authorities announced on Wednesday.
In a status update, Discord, based in San Francisco, acknowledged reports of access issues in both Turkey and Russia, stating that its team is investigating the situation.
Turkey’s Information Technologies and Communication Authority (BTK) published the decision to block Discord on its official website. Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc explained that an Ankara court determined there was sufficient suspicion that users were engaging in crimes related to “child sexual abuse and obscenity” on the platform.
The ban comes amid public outcry following the murder of two women in Istanbul earlier this month by a 19-year-old man. Reports indicated that some Discord users were praising the act on social media, further fueling the backlash.
Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu noted that the nature of Discord makes it challenging for authorities to monitor or intervene in instances of illegal content. “Security personnel cannot review the content directly. We can only act when users report issues to us,” he explained to reporters in parliament. He added, “Since Discord refuses to share information, including IP addresses and content, with our security units, we had no choice but to block access.”
In a related development, Russia’s communications regulator also blocked Discord on Tuesday for violating local laws, after previously imposing fines for the company’s failure to remove banned content, according to TASS news agency.
