Azernews.Az

by Alimat Aliyeva

In Türkiye, amid a series of armed incidents involving teenagers at several educational institutions, calls have intensified for restricting or even blocking the messaging app Telegram. Critics argue that the platform does not fully comply with national legal requirements, including the obligation to appoint an official representative in the country, AzerNEWS reports.

The issue of limiting or banning Telegram has been repeatedly discussed in Turkish media. The app is often described as a “hotbed of crime,” with some reports linking it to the spread of weapons, drugs, fraud, trafficking in personal data, and the activities of organized criminal networks. There have also been allegations that it is used to facilitate illegal services, including highly serious offenses.

Over the past decade, Turkish regulatory authorities have reportedly sent more than a thousand notifications to Telegram through the country’s Information and Communication Technologies Authority. Hundreds of channels have been shut down, and various sanctions have been applied to accounts operating on the platform.

Just recently, the Ministry of Interior announced that during investigations into attacks at a high school in Şanlıurfa and a secondary school in Kahramanmaraş, access to 940 social media accounts was blocked, and 93 Telegram groups were shut down. Arrest warrants have also been issued, and legal proceedings initiated against 83 individuals accused of distributing content linked to criminal activity and disturbing public order.

New regulatory efforts are also being discussed, including a draft law proposing a minimum age of 15 for social media users. The bill is expected to be submitted to the Grand National Assembly soon.

Interestingly, similar debates are taking place in many countries around the world, where governments are increasingly trying to balance online safety and crime prevention with digital privacy and freedom of expression. This ongoing tension has made messaging platforms like Telegram central to global discussions about the future of internet regulation.