Türkiye and Russia have prevented access to Discord, the gaming-adjacent messaging platform.
According to Reuters, Turkey allegedly stopped Discord and then refused to share information demanded by the Turkish government about alleged crimes of “child sexual abuse and obscenity” that had been committed on the platform.
“Security personnel cannot review the content. We can only intervene when users complain about the content shared there,” said Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu.
“Since Discord refuses to share its own information, including IP addresses and content, with our security units, we were forced to block access.”
Similarly, the Russian government also implemented a blanket ban on the device today and then imposed fines on the San Francisco-based company for allegedly violating Russian law.
Claiming that Discord failed to remove 1,000 pieces deemed illegal and prevented in Russia, the government stepped in and has now stopped access entirely. Facebook and X/Twitter are also banned in the country.
The ban has had an instant impact on builders operating in the affected areas.
“Now Discord is also banned in Türkiye, communications between our Finland and Türkiye studios are now dead unless we use VPN in [our] office in Türkiye, which is considered illegal,” said Meric Eryuyek of Gaming Istanbul.
“My guess is that this arbitrary, clueless and senseless ban affected around 800 Turkish studios and their creative work. For some studios, nothing can do what Discord does. What a dumb, ignorant and destructive move.”
“We are aware of reports that Discord is unreachable in Russia and Türkiye,” a Discord spokesperson told Reuters. “Our team is investigating these reports at this time.”
