Access to Discord blocked in Turkey: First statement on the access ban from Minister Tunç

The messaging and social media application Discord had been in the spotlight over allegations of blackmail and sexual abuse targeting children. While there was speculation about whether Discord would be blocked, access to the platform was restricted after midnight by a decision from the Ankara 1st Criminal Court of Peace.

Minister of Justice Yılmaz Tunç had recently announced that judicial investigations had been initiated regarding content that constitutes a crime on social media and internet pages.

"WE WILL NOT COMPROMISE"

Tunç stated, "Sanctions such as fines, advertising bans, bandwidth throttling, and access blocking will be resolutely applied against social network providers and internet pages that do not remove this content and do not implement the judicial decisions taken on this matter, in accordance with Law No. 5651 on the Regulation of Publications Made on the Internet and Combating Crimes Committed Through These Publications.

The Republic of Turkey is a state of law.

It is the duty of a state of law to protect society from crime. Social network providers and internet pages that broadcast in our country and have millions of users must also comply with the laws and rules of the Republic of Turkey.

No one has any privilege. We will never allow attempts to poison our youth and children, who are the guarantee of our future, or to shake the foundations of our social structure. We will absolutely not compromise on our determination to fight crime and criminals.”

ACCESS BAN ON DISCORD

A few hours after Minister Tunç's statement, the decision was published: "discord.com has been blocked from access by the decision of the Ankara 1st Criminal Court of Peace dated 09.10.2024 and numbered 2024/12907 D. iş."

“WE DO NOT WANT TO BE PROHIBITIONIST BUT…”

Stating that they held a meeting with the Ministers of Interior, Justice, and Family and Social Services over the weekend, Uraloğlu had said, “We do not want to be prohibitionist, but we will not hesitate to use every authority to protect our youth.”

FIRST STATEMENT FROM MINISTER TUNÇ REGARDING THE ACCESS BAN DECISION

Minister of Justice Yılmaz Tunç:

A decision has been made to block access from Turkey to the social media platform named Discord by removing all its content, due to the existence of sufficient suspicion that the crimes of “child sexual abuse and obscenity” defined in Article 8/1 of the ‘Law on the Regulation of Publications Made on the Internet and Combating Crimes Committed Through These Publications’ have been committed.

We are determined to protect our youth and children, who are the guarantee of our future, 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.