Turkey has blocked Discord after the platform declined to share user data.

Turkey has blocked access to the instant messaging platform Discord after it refused to comply with government requests for user data. The San Francisco-based company confirmed that it is looking into reports of service disruptions in Turkey and Russia. The ban, announced by Turkey's Information Technologies and Communication Authority, follows a court ruling citing suspicions of crimes related to child sexual abuse and obscenity on the platform. Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc stated that the court had sufficient grounds to impose the restriction based on these allegations. 

The decision comes amid increasing public outrage following the murder of two women by a 19-year-old man in Istanbul, with posts praising the murders surfacing on Discord, leading to further backlash and raising concerns about the platform's role in spreading harmful content.

Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu emphasized the difficulties faced by Turkish authorities in monitoring illegal activities on Discord, which allows a level of anonymity that complicates oversight. He noted, "Security personnel cannot review the content. We can only intervene when users report inappropriate content." Uraloglu added that Discord's refusal to provide user data, including IP addresses and content information, left the government with no option but to block access. This action follows a similar move by Russia's communications regulator, which blocked Discord on Tuesday for allegedly violating national laws by failing to remove prohibited content. Russian authorities had previously fined Discord for non-compliance.