A court in Turkey has banned the use of instant messaging app Discord, following claims that the platform has been used for child abuse, blackmail, and online harassment.

This was made known on Wednesday by the nation’s telecoms authorities Turkey’s Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) which disclosed on its website that the ban was imposed on Discord by an Ankara court.

According to Turkey Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç, on X, the Ankara court issued the platform ban at the request of the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.

The Justice Minister added that the decision to ban Discord was made because there was reasonable suspicion that the crimes of “child sexual abuse and obscenity” had been perpetrated on the platform.

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“We are determined to protect our youth and children, the assurance of our future, from harmful publications that constitute a crime on social media and the internet. We will never allow attempts to shake the foundations of our social structure,” said the minister.

Speaking to reporters in parliament on Wednesday, Abdulkadir Uraloglu, the minister of transportation and infrastructure, emphasized that Discord’s private nature made it difficult for Turkish authorities to monitor the platform and take action against any illegal information.

“Security personnel cannot go through the content. We can only intervene when users complain to us about content shared there”, he stated. “Since Discord refuses to share its information, including IP addresses and content, with our security units, we were forced to block access”.

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