• snvzz 9 months ago

    A few years ago, it looked like Turkey would be joining the EU.

    But then it derailed. Really hard.

    • tchbnl 9 months ago

      Yes, Erdogan has really dragged Turkey back. It picked up after that "coup" attempt that he used to arrest anybody who disagreed with him, be it soldiers or even judges.

      It's so sad to see Turkey turn out like this, but there's nobody that can do anything except their own citizens.

      • hulitu 9 months ago

        > A few years ago, it looked like Turkey would be joining the EU

        They have a handicap though, they are muslim. That's why EU does not want them. But EU is playing theater and gives them false hopes.

        • throw49sjwo1 9 months ago

          Few years ago? Must be more than a decade - or would you specify how many years ago do you mean?

          • xinayder 9 months ago

            it happened in 2016

            • throw49sjwo1 9 months ago

              Yeah, but Turkey went way far away from EU much earlier.

              • aprilthird2021 9 months ago

                When, in your opinion?

                • throw49sjwo1 9 months ago

                  Already during Erdogan's prime ministry, it was well known that Turkey is not really joining EU at least since 2010.

        • deutschepost 9 months ago

          Sadly they already joined the NATO.

          • CoastalCoder 9 months ago

            allies =/= friends

            • deutschepost 9 months ago

              But what to do if your ally is best friends with all autocrats in the world? Are you by transitivity allies with them too?

              • aprilthird2021 9 months ago

                NATO is allied with many autocrats, especially the Gulf countries.

          • t0bia_s 9 months ago

            Looks like both want control over internet traffic and chat.

          • egorfine 9 months ago

            What does Turkey have in common with Russia? They both have blocked Discord simultaneously. What a synergy!

            • diggan 9 months ago

              Both are in BRICS? Are there other BRICS countries who also blocked Discord? Maybe the news organizations don't care much about smaller nations like Burkina Fasa blocking Discord.

              • dizhn 9 months ago

                Turkey is not in BRICS.

                • diggan 9 months ago

                  True, thanks for correcting me. Turkey applied in 2024 to join BRICS (and also SCO seemingly), but haven't done so yet.

                  • ein0p 9 months ago

                    And likely won’t be accepted unless it exits NATO. Sitting on that many chairs is not acceptable even if you control the Bosporus.

                • Log_out_ 9 months ago

                  Is brics the name of a alliance or a regional war?

                • CoastalCoder 9 months ago

                  > What a synergy!

                  Jakov Smirnoff homage?

                • maven29 9 months ago

                  Malware authors in shambles. No point in mourning a platform that neglects user safety and comfort to this extent.

                  • snvzz 9 months ago

                    Could you elaborate on this.

                    • oglop 9 months ago

                      Sure. Discord is a magnet for child sex abuse and money scams. The end.

                      • squigz 9 months ago

                        What is it about Discord that makes it more of a magnet than any other large Internet platform?

                        • consumer451 9 months ago

                          From what I have seen, it is Discord's closed nature, their decision not to police their own communities very much, combined with the fact that it's a great product.

                          edit after 1 upvote: I should add that I believe that Discord has an immense amount of moderation-debt.

                          Due to its closed nature, there aren't external eyeballs on the communities so things can really fester. At some point, that can boil-over into IRL, like they appear to have just done in Turkey.

                          • squigz 9 months ago

                            I don't want Discord "policing" my community, nor do I want "external eyeballs" on it. In any case, this is not specific to Discord at all, which was my original question.

                            • consumer451 9 months ago

                              Policing was the wrong term to use, I was too late to edit it.

                              What I meant was moderation. And they do moderate, whether you like it or not. CSAM, conspiracy to murder, and terrorism are beyond the pale for nearly everybody. All of those things require moderation if a company wants to stay in business.

                              • filoleg 9 months ago

                                Well, that sounds… good? They don’t meddle in the communities unless child abuse and other straight up no-doubt illegal content is involved, in which case they do.

                                Feels like a less centralized reddit, which sounds like something for which there definitely exists a decently large market.

                                • squigz 9 months ago

                                  Yup, and those are the things I want them to moderate (and they do, about as well as any large tech company does)

                                  • johngladtj 9 months ago

                                    That's just censorship by another name. No thanks.

                                    • squigz 9 months ago

                                      Taking action against people/servers sharing actual child pornography is literally censorship, huh?

                            • StefanBatory 9 months ago

                              I can say the same about FB, Messenger, Reddit, WhatsApp,

                              (...)

                              HackerNews, mails, letters, conversations.

                              The end.

                          • nextlevelwizard 9 months ago

                            I have no idea what you are on about. I have used Discord for many years without any issues about safety or comfort.

                          • StefanBatory 9 months ago

                            People are happy about censorship as long as it doesn't invoke them, I guess seeing reactions.

                            • hyperG 9 months ago

                              Tolerance for ideas one disagrees with has a very short history in space and time. Intolerance in this area seems to be the long run equilibrium and we are simply returning from a far from equilibrium state that could only last so long.

                              • ThrowawayTestr 9 months ago

                                People were cheering when Brazil banned Twitter. Go figure.

                              • demarq 9 months ago

                                Before you make too many assumptions:

                                > The block comes after public outrage in Turkey caused by the murder of two women by a 19-year-old man in Istanbul this month. Content on social media showed Discord users subsequently praising the killing.

                                This is what would happen anywhere else in the world, see the last incident between France and telegram

                                • squigz 9 months ago

                                  > This is what would happen anywhere else in the world

                                  On every single large social media platform, people praise and applaud the death of individuals and entire races of people, all the time. Yet Facebook, Twitter and related sites aren't blocked in most of the world. What's up with that?

                                  • demarq 9 months ago

                                    Nope.

                                    If murder or terrorism happened in France or UK and a social media platform refused to assist the authorities, There. Would. Be. Consequences.

                                    • beart 9 months ago

                                      Your first post did not indicate discord refused to assist authorities, but that users praised a violent act.

                                      • squigz 9 months ago

                                        Indeed. GP's original post - ironically prefaced with "Before you make too many assumptions" - implied the reasoning was something entirely unrelated to what it actually was about.

                                        • demarq 9 months ago

                                          HN rules are that I should assume you read the article.

                                          • beart 9 months ago

                                            I did read the article. I'm just pointing out the likely reason that all these comments seem to be talking past one another.

                                            The quote you chose doesn't seem to reinforce the point you are making.

                                            • squigz 9 months ago

                                              Technically there's nothing saying that in the guidelines.

                                              • andriesm 9 months ago

                                                I suspect it was meant tongue in cheek, I had a good chuckle with it when I read it.

                                        • hulitu 9 months ago

                                          > Yet Facebook, Twitter and related sites aren't blocked in most of the world. What's up with that?

                                          You don't want to upset people from the capital (Washington). /s

                                        • DrillShopper 9 months ago

                                          > This is what would happen anywhere else in the world

                                          lmao wtf no it wouldn't. Truth Social is used literally every day (by some) to call for the assassination of politicians belonging to the Democractic party, the party currently in power, and it has not been banned.

                                          Maybe Erdogan and the rest of Turkey should grow a slightly thicker skin.

                                          • 8note 9 months ago

                                            However, you still see the US banning non-US controlled social media, eg. TikTok. Silly dances and cat videos are are too much for the American government 's skin, when they can say no to the NSA and FBI

                                          • nitwit005 9 months ago

                                            I would not take their stated reasons seriously.

                                            They seem not to be a fan of social media in general, and have blocked a long list of social media sites. They even blocked Wikipedia until their constitutional court overturned the ban.

                                            • demarq 9 months ago

                                              That’s absolutely true.

                                              It’s also true that they do have a point in this unfortunate event.

                                              Both can be true.

                                            • lm28469 9 months ago

                                              This is ridiculous, if any platform on which "users praised _illegal things_" were banned every single website in the world would be banned.

                                              > This is what would happen anywhere else in the world, see the last incident between France and telegram

                                              Telegram wasn't banned in France

                                              There is a (very wide) spectrum between full censorship due to a few "users" and complete freedom to the point of being the backbone of illegal cartels

                                              • demarq 9 months ago

                                                That’s because they had access to the founder and threatened him imprisonment.

                                                And why does everyone who replies to me leave behind the main point on the article?

                                                It’s not “just” people said something’s here. It’s that in response to a very real crime , the authorities were denied assistance by the platform.

                                                It’s like saying that telegram was in trouble because people said some stuff. Nope, telegram in trouble for not cooperating with the government.

                                                • andriesm 9 months ago

                                                  'a very real crime". Is celebrating a murder, a real crime? I know INCITING is in most places. How about laughing about it? Minimizing it? Making. jokes about? Having a conspiracy theory about it? I don't know Turkey' s laws, but I suspect almost all of these are legal in free speech oriented places.

                                                • justinclift 9 months ago

                                                  > ... every single website in the world would be banned.

                                                  Doesn't seem to be even slightly true, as not every website in the world has that crap.

                                              • AbuAssar 9 months ago

                                                [flagged]

                                                • tekla 9 months ago

                                                  Only "matters" in diplomatic context. Otherwise Turkey is still considered completely acceptable

                                                  • andriesm 9 months ago

                                                    Sadly the original comment is gone! This seems to be happening with alarming frequency on HN.

                                                    I once noticed something "interesting" about how Taiwan was labelled in some country data, and my comment was also flagged and deleted like this.

                                                    It seems the moderation on HN is getting very strict.

                                                    Sadly it often means I see interesting discussions where the original base comment is gone. At least the follow ups are not scrubbed.

                                                    But I would have appreciated an option to reveal flagged content, maybe after accepting a warning message.