Turkey Orders Discord Block Over ‘Child Sexual Abuse and Obscenity’ Allegations

The logos of the social networks applications Zoom, Discord, Teams, and WhatsApp on the screen of a phone in Paris on May 27, 2020. Martin Bureau/AFP via Getty Images

Turkey has blocked access to social media platform Discord following a court decision amid allegations of “child sexual abuse and obscenity” on the platform.

The country’s infotech regulator, the Information Technologies and Communication Authority, published the access ban decision on its website.

On Oct. 9, Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc told a Turkish court that he sought to remove access to the U.S. company’s online platform because of “sufficient suspicion” that crimes of “child sexual abuse and obscenity” had been committed.

At the request of the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, the court ordered the removal of all publications from Discord. Tunc said that consequently, access to specific Discord-related URLs has been restricted in the country.

“We are determined to protect our youth and children, from the harmful publications of social media and the internet that constitute crimes. We will never allow attempts to shake the foundations of our social structure,” Tunc said in a post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Public Outrage

The access ban decision follows public outrage over the murders of two women perpetrated by a 19-year-old man earlier this month.

Following the incident, content on social media revealed that some users of Discord were praising the killings, leading to expressions of public anger against certain communities on the platform.

On Oct. 8, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on X that law enforcement conducted an operation against the administrators of a group named “C31K” on Telegram and Discord because of bullying incidents occurring on the two platforms. The two individuals, who are children, were taken into custody.

“We will not show mercy to those who try to poison our society, especially our children and youth, the apple of our eye, with their perverted thoughts on social media,” Yerlikaya said.

“No matter where you hide in the cyber world, our cyber patrols will find you one by one and bring you to justice.”

With a predominantly young user base and popularity among the gaming community, Discord has gained more than 150 million active monthly users and works by making online spaces, known as Discord servers, available to create communities.

Other Bans

In August, Turkey also blocked Roblox, a gaming platform also popular among children and teenagers, following similar allegations regarding child abuse.

Tunc, at the time, said a Turkish court had imposed the access block following an investigation by prosecutors in the southern province of Adana that arose from concerns about content that could lead to the abuse of children.

In response, Roblox stated, “[We are] committed to doing everything we can to keep our community safe, and we share global policymakers’ commitment to protecting children.”

The Erdogan administration also blocked access to Instagram following a top Turkish official’s accusation that the social media site blocked condolence posts over the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, leader of the Hamas terrorist group.

In 2023, X stated that in order to prevent its service from being blocked, it had taken action on 12 accounts and 15 tweets identified by a Turkish government court order ahead of elections.

Turkey has a law requiring social media companies to remove content characterized as “disinformation” and to share user data with authorities if they post content deemed to be criminal, including misleading information.

Social media companies are also required to appoint Turkish representatives, and they face their bandwidth being immediately throttled by up to 90 percent should the representative fail to provide court-ordered information to the authorities.

U.S. Lawmakers

In January, U.S. lawmakers urged the executives of social media platforms, including Discord, Meta, Snap, TikTok, and X, to address the issue of sexual exploitation of children online.

“Social media companies, as they are currently designed and operate, are dangerous products,” Senate Judiciary Committee ranking Republican member Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in his opening statement during a committee hearing on the issue. “They’re destroying lives, threatening democracy itself. These companies must be reined in, or the worst is yet to come.”

Discord Inc. CEO Jason Citron said more than 60 percent of its users are between 13 and 24 years old. He touted the money that Discord spent to acquire an artificial intelligence tool aimed at eliminating bad actors.

Discord CEO Jason Citron testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington on Jan. 31, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the committee’s chair, asked Citron about how well its platform protects children, given that it can’t use automated tools to patrol servers with less than 200 users.

“So how do you defend an approach to safety that relies on groups of fewer than 200 sexual predators to report themselves?” Durbin asked.

Citron responded, “We deploy a wide array of techniques that work across every surface on Discord.”

The Epoch Times contacted Discord for comment but did not receive a reply by publication time.

Austin Alonzo of The Epoch Times and Reuters contributed to this report.