Turkey has lifted the ban on Kick, a live-streaming platform. Journalist Ibrahim Haskoloğlu recently reported this in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter). The news comes about five days after the country started blocking website access because of it containing gambling. This violates some of the existing laws of the state. It appears that Twitch remains banned.
The debate surrounding gambling on livestreams has been ongoing for years. Last week’s sanctions against Kick sparked a lot of debate online. Many users shared screenshots of error messages and pop-ups indicating that the website has been blocked. Nevertheless, it appears that the State-backed streaming platform has categorically removed gambling from the Turkish version of the website.
According to Haskoloğlu’s post on X (formerly known as Twitter), the reason why Twitch is still blocked/banned is because they have yet to do anything to censor the slots and betting streams.
The government agency National Lottery Administration is in charge of enforcing the rules and regulations on every type of betting game in the country. The Turkish government highly regulates gambling in Turkey. Last week, it was this body that blocked the State-backed website. Haskoloğlu claims that officials had blamed the live-streaming platform for trying to influence taking up gambling on the youth.
In accordance to the latest reports, it seems the official position on the streaming platform has changed because they removed gambling content. Many people have noted that Kick has stirred up a lot of controversy surrounding gambling. This is especially considering its founders also own Stake.com. Stake.com is a highly popular online gambling website.
Stake has faced a lot of backlash over the years on Twitch. This ultimately led the Amazon-owned platform to severely restrict slots and other betting games. However, Twitch remains banned in Turkey as of now as the website still features some types of betting games. It is uncertain if they will take actions to lift the platform’s ban.
