Turkey blocks Discord over security concerns just days after Russia ban

by Danny Craig  ·  Updated 
Turkey blocks Discord over security concerns just days after Russia ban
Discord

Turkey has officially blocked messaging platform Discord after the San Francisco-based company refused to share information with the country’s government.

The details:

  • As reported by Reuters, justice minister Yilmaz Tunc claims that "crimes of child sexual abuse and obscenity" occurred on the platform in a statement posted on the Information Technologies and Communication Authority's website.

  • Transport and infrastructure minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu added that Discord's privacy policies make it difficult to monitor and respond to illegal content, as the company has previously refused to share information. “Security personnel cannot go through the content,” Uraloglu said. “We can only intervene when users complain to us about content shared there. Since Discord refuses to share its own information, including IP addresses and content, with our security units, we were forced to block access.”

  • The block comes after reports of Discord users celebrating the murder of two women in Istanbul by a 19-year-old man earlier this month. Screenshots of the messages began circulating on social media, prompting many to suggest that the platform may be rife with harmful content, particularly from incels.

  • Turkey is not the only country to have restricted Discord recently, as Russia banned the platform for "violating Russian law" earlier this week. According to its communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, the company failed to delete nearly 1,000 "illegal items" brought to its attention, prompting the state to block the platform.

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