Court blocks social media platform in Turkey citing concerns that so-called incel groups and others use it to spread images of violence and sexual abuse of children and women.
Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc announced on Wednesday that Discord, an instant messaging and social media platform, has been blocked in Turkey by a court order.
“A decision has been made to remove all publications from content and block access from Turkey to the specified URLs due to sufficient suspicion of the crimes of ‘child sexual abuse and obscenity,’” Tunc said on his X account.
Tunc insisted that the decision has been made to protect children.
“We are determined to protect our youth and children, the guarantee of our future, from harmful and illegal content on social media and the internet,” Tunc added.
Following the brutal murder of two young women over the weekend, the minister ealier announced that an investigation has been launched into groups that allegedly create and spread content on Discord containing violence, extortion, and sexual assault against children and women.
It has been revealed that the Semih Celik, who murdered the two 19-year-old women and then killed himself, was in contact with these groups, also known as “incels” or “involuntary celibates” in English.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya on Wednesday said that two children had been taken into custody after it was determined that they were the moderators of a group that allegedly spread content containing sexual abuse against children.
On the same day that Turkey blocked access to Discord, Russia also blocked access to the platform, claiming the network had failed to comply with Russian laws against recruiting “terrorists and extremists”, TASS news agency reported.
Turkey has previously blocked many social media platforms, including YouTube, Threads, EksiSozluk, Wikipedia, Twitter and TikTok. It has also imposed social media and broadcasting bans following disasters, terror attacks and social unrest.
Users in Turkey now cannot access Discord via web and mobile applications due to the ban. Access is still possible via VPN services.