Turkish Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç announced the blocking in Turkey of the online gaming platform Roblox, which Turkish authorities accuse of inciting child abuse: a decision that came into effect on 7 August by order of a court in Adana, in the south of the country, and comes just days after the blocking in Turkey of Instagram.
Roblox is an online video game platform that allows users to program and play games created by themselves or other users, and has more than 15 million players. According to Turkish media reports, the cybercrime investigation unit of the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic in Adana (southern Turkey) filed a petition to the courts to block access to the website www.roblox.com/tr and its applications, after it was established that there were indications that some of its content could constitute a crime of instigating the abuse of minors.
The prosecution’s request was accepted by the 6th Criminal Court of Adana, which made the decision to block the specified internet addresses and applications while the investigation is conducted, under Article 8/A1 of the “Law on regulating publications made on the internet and combating crimes committed through these publications”.
“According to our constitution, our state is obliged to take the necessary measures to protect our children,” said the minister, who did not provide information on how long the Roblox block will last. “Turkey is one of the leading countries that closely follow global developments and use technology in the best possible way. However, misuse of technology is totally unacceptable,” Tunç said.
The blocking of the gaming platform Roblox in Turkey comes just days after Turkish authorities on 2 August also ordered the blocking of Instagram, in this case accusing the popular Meta social network of double standards for removing content from Turkish users offering condolences for the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, but not removing content in favour of the PKK terrorist group or insulting Atatürk, which is a criminal offence in Turkey. Although representatives of Instagram and the Turkish government have held meetings to try to lift the block, no agreement has been reached so far.
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Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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