The decision is published on the website of the regulatory authority of Information Technology (BTK). State-run Anadolu Agency said the decision was based on “detection of content that may lead to child abuse”. The latest moves to block popular websites have angered millions of Turks, mostly young people, who use them either for entertainment or for e-commerce. Roblox is an online gaming platform that allows users to program and play games created by themselves or others, with over 196 million monthly active users as of March 2024. Featured was the post on X of a developer and user of Roblox “#Roblox banned in Turkey. Many game developers in Turkey used Roblox as a platform to create and earn a living, including me. I don’t know what to do anymore.”

So far, there has been no official statement from Roblox Corporation regarding the ban. Users in Turkey are still unable to access the platform. The regulatory authority, as well as the responsible minister, do not give convincing answers. However, the opposition through the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglou, is strongly reacting, who described the latest ban as “unthinkable”. “Those who make these decisions are minds that are ignorant of the new world, economy and technology.” While the well-known Turkish journalist Fatih Altaili in his article titled “it can’t be that simple” writes: “Finally, it turned out that in Turkey anything can be banned by a judge’s decision alone.