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ISTANBUL: Turkey blocked access to the Discord social media platform Wednesday to “protect” children and young people from online abuse, the justice minister said.
The move by Turkey’s BTK communications authority came after a ruling by a court in Ankara amid “suspicion” the platform had been used for “the sexual abuse of children and obscenity”.
“We are determined to protect our young people and our children…from harmful and criminal publications on social media and the internet,” Turkish justice minister Yilmaz Tunc wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
The ban came a day after Russia also banned the platform.
Discord, a US-based platform very popular with video game fans, is also used as an internal messaging system by many firms and has become an alternative for people who have turned away from X and Facebook.
Turkish media reports said some Discord users had posted messages hailing Friday’s double murder of two 19-year-old women in Istanbul while others had been using the platform to harass under-age girls.
In August, Turkey banned access to the video games platform Roblox, citing content that was harmful to children.
The move came several days after it blocked access to Instagram, which was restored after nine days.
Discord, which offers a free platform where text, audio and video can be exchanged, has some 150 million users.
Russia’s telecoms watchdog announced a ban on Discord on Tuesday saying the move was aimed at “preventing the use of messaging for terrorist and extremist purposes”.
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