Discord blocked in Russia and Turkey

The messenger Discord, which is particularly popular with computer gamers, is no longer accessible in both Russia and Turkey. Both countries have blocked the online service. Russia accuses Discord of not having deleted illegal content. Turkey suspects some Discord users of child sexual abuse, but the platform operator refuses to hand over IP addresses and other data of the suspects. As a result, access to Discord has been blocked in these countries.

The operators of Discord have not yet commented on these blocks and the allegations. However, they write on their status page about access within these two countries: "We are aware of reports that Discord is unavailable in Russia and Turkey. Our team is currently investigating these reports."

Turkey with criminal allegations

In Turkey, a court in Ankara has blocked access to Discord because there is sufficient suspicion that some users of the service have committed crimes of "sexual abuse of children", reports Reuters. Turkey's transportation minister, Abdulkadir Uraloğlu, also explained that the authorities could not constantly monitor the platform and intervene if illegal content was published.

"Security personnel cannot view the content. We can only intervene if users complain to us about content shared there," Uraloğlu told reporters in parliament. "Since Discord refuses to share its own information, including IP addresses and content, with our security units, we were forced to block access."

Discord's blockade comes just days after a 19-year-old man brutally murdered two women of the same age in Istanbul within half an hour of each other before taking his own life. By the beginning of October, 292 women had fallen victim to male violence, writes Türkiye Today. This led to protests within the country, but some users glorified the murders on Discord.

Russia's Discord ban restricts military

In Russia, the state supervisory authority Roskomnadzor ordered Discord earlier this month to delete almost 1,000 items of content deemed illegal. The service has also previously been fined for failing to remove such content, reports Reuters. After Discord failed to respond, the messenger is now blocked in Russia.

Facebook and Instagram have been banned in Russia since the beginning of the Ukraine war in 2022 because platform operator Meta was declared an "extremist organization" in the country. X (formerly Twitter) is also banned in Russia. However, Discord has so far been used by the Russian military for internal communication because there is no dedicated service for secure messaging, reports the Washington Post.

(fds)