Chatting with others, holding video calls or exchanging files: All of this is possible with Discord, a messenger service available worldwide that is particularly popular with gamers. The provider has now been taken offline in two countries: Both Russia and Turkey have blocked Discord.
Discord shutdown in Turkey: Concern for young people
In Turkey, the Attorney General ordered Discord to be blocked. The primary aim is to protect children and young people from bullying, blackmail and sexual content, as various agencies report. “We are determined to protect our youth and children, the guarantee of our future, from harmful, criminal publications on social media and the Internet,” said Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc on X.
In order to display the social networks, we need your consent.
Activate social networks
I agree to being shown content from third parties. This means that personal data can be transmitted to third parties. This may require the storage of cookies on your device. You can find more information about this here.
Translation: At the request of the General Prosecutor’s Office of Ankara, the 1st Criminal Justice of the Peace of Ankara decided that the social media platform Discord should be published on the social media platform Discord in accordance with Article 8/1 of Law No. 5651 on the regulation of the on the Internet publications created and the fight against the crimes committed through these publications: “Due to reasonable suspicion that crimes have been committed, it was decided to remove all publications from the content and to block access to the specified URL addresses from Turkey. We are determined to protect our youth and children, the guarantee of our future, from harmful, criminal publications on social media and the Internet. We will never allow attempts to shake the foundations of our social structure.
Russia: Discoord ban due to fear of terror
The situation is somewhat different with the Discord block in Russia: the authorities there closed the messenger because they see it as a communication channel for terrorist activities and for unspecified “illegal information”. Russian investigators are also targeting Discord as a platform for drug trafficking. Prior to this decision, the company had already been fined two fines of 3.6 million rubles (approximately 34,000 euros) and 6 million rubles (approximately 56,500 euros), in addition to multiple requests to remove content that violates Russian law. Failure to follow these requirements ultimately resulted in blocking.
Surf anonymously and bypass country restrictions with VPN services
By the way, regional blocks that prevent access to web content are common practice: Among other things, streaming services block films, live sports, etc. because, among other things, they do not have broadcast rights for certain countries. A blockade does not always have political reasons, but often economic ones. Such blocks are possible because Internet users reveal their origin via their computer’s IP address, which, like a kind of telephone number, provides information about who is accessing the Internet, when and where. In general, you are anything but anonymous on the internet; IP addresses and surfing histories provide precise information about what you are doing on the Internet. If you don’t want this, you can use a VPN service to hide your identity and possibly circumvent any blocks. You can find the currently best VPN providers in the following list of the best.
