After a ruling by Ankara 1st Peace Court, a judge ruled a complete ban on the instant messaging app in the country. The ban was released on Turkey’s BKT website, and it stated that the ban was due to sexual abuse of children, harassment, blackmail and crypto crimes.
Discord ban is a result of blackmail and murder
Turkey started a judicial investigation against criminal content on social media platforms, specifically, Discord and Telegram. Yilmaz Tunc, a Turkish Justice Minister and member of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s cabinet announced the investigation. He stated restrictions and bandwidth throttling will be applied to any social platform that does not follow the new rules.< /p>
Ankara Cumhuriyet Başsavcılığının talebi üzerine Ankara 1. Sulh Ceza Hakimliği’nce Discord isimli sosyal medya platformuna 5651 Sayılı ‘İnternet Ortamında Yapılan Yayınların Düzenlenmesi ve Bu Yayınlar Yoluyla İşlenen Suçlarla Mücadele Edilmesi Hakkında Kanun’un 8/1 maddesinde…
— Yılmaz TUNÇ (@yilmaztunc) October 8, 2024
The ban was fuelled by the outrage of Turkish people after a 19-year-old man killed two women in Istanbul. The murder was linked to Discord conversations that encouraged violence and illegal behavior.
Some of the Discord users spoke about murder and death but categorized those conversations under dark humor. The investigation also found that some users earned their living by blackmailing people using visual content.
Turkey isn’t the first country to ban Discord. The popular messaging app was banned in Russia, China, Iran, UAE and Oman.
