Turkey, Russia ban Discord over child abuse allegations

Turkey and Russia have both moved to ban the popular communication platform Discord, citing concerns over child abuse and other criminal activities. 

In Turkey, authorities blocked access to Discord after a court ruling linked the platform to incidents of child sexual abuse and obscene content, as confirmed by Reuters today.

Public outrage intensified following reports of violent content circulating on Discord, including posts around a recent double homicide. 

In an X post, Yılmaz Tunç, Turkey’s Minister of Justice, emphasized the country’s commitment to protecting children and society from harmful online material, while also addressing broader concerns over social media platforms being used for criminal activities.

“Social network providers and websites 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 privileges.”

The Turkish ban came hours after Russia also banned Discord as part of its broader crackdown on non-compliant tech companies. The Russian government previously fined Discord for failing to remove prohibited content and has now escalated its actions, banning the platform entirely. 

These moves come amidst increasing scrutiny of foreign tech companies in Russia, with Discord joining other major platforms like Facebook and Instagram on the banned list.

Meanwhile, Discord has also been linked to crypto-related crimes in recent years. Reports have surfaced about crypto scams being organized through private channels on the platform. In 2021, Kaspersky warned of a scam targeting Discord users and directing them to fraudulent crypto exchanges.

Scammers have also leveraged Discord to promote pump-and-dump crypto schemes. The U.S. Department of Justice previously filed a case against seven X users who ran a $100 million pump-and-dump crypto scheme using Discord.

Some nefarious individuals also leveraged a fake Discord channel for crypto project Access Protocol to scam investors of $880,000. Moreover, other cryptocurrency projects such as OpenSea, Renzo, and Polygon have witnessed breaches on their Discord accounts, as hackers aimed to use them for criminal activities.