Access to 29 dating and video chat apps have been blocked upon orders of two courts in Ankara, including widely used platforms such as Tinder, Azar, LivU, and Tango, the Freedom of Expression Association (İFÖD) reported.
The bans were imposed by Ankara’s 3rd and 4th criminal judgeships of peace following a request by the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK).
No official statement has been released regarding the reasons for the access restrictions.
The affected applications are Azar, Mili, Chat Match – Random Video Chat, Call Me Chat, Flirtfy, Lips, Hi, CoMeet, Tango, Camsurf & Video Chat, Roulette Chat Video Omegle Ome, LivCam, Instacams, Derya Görüntülü Sohbet, Chat PIG, LiVU, StrangerCam Görüntülü Sohbet, Sarmaş Dolaş Görüntülü Sohbet.
Tango and IMVU had previously been blocked and were using alternative domain names to remain accessible, an approach commonly used by platforms facing censorhip in Turkey.
Hornet, a social networking app frequently used by LGBTI+s, has been blocked in Turkey since 2021. (VK)
