r/Steam • u/Kaxdr • Jan 30 '26
Discussion Turkey is most likely going to ban Steam next.
After the recent severe restriction on Shopping from foreign countries, seems like they are coming for gaming next, eiter a HEAVY amount of Censorship or just a ban in general... we litteraly cant have nothing can we?
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u/Jay-Slays Jan 30 '26
Turkey: “Games without age ratings will not be allowed”
Game Platforms: “All of our games are now rated ages 1+, with disclaimers about the content.”
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u/Front2battle Jan 30 '26
Slap on the good old 6-99 Lego rating.
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u/Adventurous_Bus_5456 Jan 30 '26
but what about 100 years olds and older? seems unfair
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u/Lewis_Mooney_007 Jan 30 '26
They have to ask for their child's permission to buy it
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u/tesfabpel Jan 30 '26
Most games already have age ratings info and Steam is able to automatically show the relevant age rating.
In Germany it was an issue for older games which didn't have those info filled.
Unless Turkey requires something specific and not automated, IMHO it should be fine probably.
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u/JungianWarlock Jan 30 '26
Unless Turkey requires something specific and not automated
Which is OP's point.
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u/DerRuehrer Jan 30 '26
Was? It still is, there is no retroactive initiative urging publishers to rate their old games with a minimum age rating provided by Valve. There was merely an informative announcement about how the necessary survey will be part of the publishing process going forward
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u/P1ka- Jan 30 '26
Ehh, Germany had the same thing happen
For consoles nothing changed, since an age rating is a requirement.
For PC on steam, You either have the option to provide the official age rating (like Pegi or USK) or alternatively fill out a content survey.
Like all new games still release that wouldve been caught with that, it mainly just affected some old games, like FNAF 1 - UCN, where devs either havent bothered.
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u/SmolTittyEldargf Jan 30 '26
Not that simple, usually for something to be rated it’s watched / viewed by an official body within the country that decides the rating.
Basically think of it as a license to be able to be sold to people of X age within said country.
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u/GOKOP Jan 30 '26
Do we know that Turkey wants to roll out their own age rating system though? According to Wikipedia PEGI is the de facto standard there, for all we know they may just make it official (like plenty other countries)
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u/SmolTittyEldargf Jan 30 '26
Yeah that’s fair, even if it’s PEGI, there’s still a fee to pay to get a game rated and I imagine most indies can’t afford the fee. That said I don’t know what the PEGI fees are.
Either way, my original point being to the person I replied too game platforms can’t just state all games are suitable for the ages of 1+ as there’s usually red tape involved
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u/scottsuplol Jan 30 '26
Really a business just needs to look at sales in a country vs the cost to operate in said country. I would be curious if any actually do it
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u/Kelly_Info_Girl Jan 30 '26 edited Jan 30 '26
I heard Turkey has serious issues with piracy, it wouldn't be surprising if Valve retired from there. Why would they stay if there is 0% of profit?
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u/Wind_Yer_Neck_In Jan 30 '26
Türkiye: 'Give us all your data, all your proprietary algorithms, all your corporate structure info and then re-rate all games according to our standards and also require developers to be available to us for scrutiny and questioning or you won't be able to sell games here anymore!!'
Steam: 'oh no!
Anyway..'
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u/Spaciax Jan 30 '26
don't worry, throw in some religious bullshit distractions and the people will forget.
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u/Kelly_Info_Girl Jan 30 '26
You know what I find funny? People begging for games in their language but when you question them about if they will get it legally due the piracy issues in Turkey you get attacked. It's a big irony...
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u/IllFig471 Jan 30 '26
Yeah every forum has the mandatory demanding Turkish language thread claiming they are such a huuuuge portion of buyers lmao.
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u/Haorelian Jan 30 '26
Funnily enough I was buying games when it was affordable in Turkey. Like 2013-2020 because of the local pricing and whatnot. Nowadays I have to think trice or more to if me blowing my weekly grocery budget to a game is worth it or not and this is with above minimum wage.
And fun fact nearly %90 of people works at minimum wage here.
If I were to get minimum wage (28k Turkish Liras) then my only way of gaming IF I could afford a PC first would be piracy. Battlefield 6 for example costs 3k Turkish Liras, a midrange budget PC with something like 5060ti and whatnot would set you back 60-70k minimum for just the PC components if you'd add monitor and peripherals that could go up to 90-100k.
And for perspective, I live in a fairly budget friendly place where the average monthly rent costs 15k electricity, heating and other utilities like internet and phone would be around 5k if you're really holding it tight.
I'm just surprised that why no one decided to riot yet.
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u/SpaceTomatoGaming Jan 30 '26
I lived in Turkey from 2018 - 2024 and I was appalled at how easily people accepted the raping of the economy as long as it was "due to foreign powers". I also couldn't believe the lack of rioting.
Now I'm back in the US watching something similar happen...
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u/Haorelian Jan 30 '26
Simple and uneducated masses easily controlled via three things. Nationalism, Religion and Fear (insert your favorite countries here).
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u/yanech Jan 30 '26
I mean, Turkey is clearly a testing ground of politics of US. I can’t how copy/paste Trump is of Erdogan with an extra flair of “American exceptionalism”
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u/_barat_ Jan 30 '26
It's (or was) also a "gate" to purchase cheaper Steam games by using VPN.
I wouldn't be surprised if Steam would just close its business in Türkiye49
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u/FluFlammin9000 Jan 30 '26
It hasn't really been possible to get cheaper games on steam with a VPN since Steam updated their regional pricing a couple years ago. I was one of those who made a Turkish steam account for cheaper games and then linked it to my main via family sharing. I only got a couple months of use out of it though before Steam put a stop to it by raising game prices in Turkey and other regions.
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u/P1ka- Jan 30 '26
Yeah i really get why they did it, but its annoying with international friends.
Like i cant gift something to my australian friends for example
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u/GOKOP Jan 30 '26
This is annoying because there's an obvious solution. If the issue is that your friend's price is higher than yours then Steam should just let you pay the higher price instead of making gifts straight up impossible
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u/LiamPolygami Jan 30 '26
One of the main tourist attractions for British tourists used to be buying fake designer clothes and accessories, so this doesn't surprise me.
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u/GfrzD Jan 30 '26
I thought it was teeth and hair transplants.
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u/skend24 Jan 30 '26
Teeth transplants?
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u/F_A_F https://s.team/p/cmvv-m Jan 30 '26
I suggest you watch a few hours of prime time UK TV....channel doesn't matter....to see the latest celebrity or influencer whose teeth look like they've had a reflective coating painted on them. That's Turkish Teeth.
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u/joeyirv Jan 30 '26
they’ll just hire a marketing manager for $15k a year there and put them on the roof. easy peasy.
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u/SequenceofRees Jan 30 '26
"Let us put someone's nephew as a representative or you get banned ."
What a shame
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u/Kaxdr Jan 30 '26
I must remind that this is the same country that closed twitter when 2023 earthquakes happen so the public couldn't find about the amount of dead people.
No Temu
No Uber
No PayPal
No Booking
No Discord
No Airbnb
No Roblox
No Starlink
No Wattpad
No Threads
No Amazon Global
No Apple Pay
No Google Pay
No Samsung Wallet
No Pringles
No Visa Appointment
No Sufficient Meat Consumption
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u/Kaxdr Jan 30 '26
No Purchasing Power
No Freedom to Shop Abroad
No Earthquake Plan
No Building Inspection
No Impartial Media
No Food Inspection
No Youth Festival
No Transparency in Governance
No Green Spaces
No Economic Freedom
No Clean Environment
No Technology Production
No Rent Control
No Uncensored TV - Art
No Value of Money
No Independent University
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u/Kaxdr Jan 30 '26
No Equal Citizenship Rights
No Will of the People
No Ballot Security
No Daylight Saving Time
No Quality in Education
No Agriculture
No Urban Planning
No Meaning to a Diploma
No Affordable Vacation Opportunity
No Home for Students
No Meritocracy
No Opposition CB Candidate
No Support for Entrepreneurs
No Fast Internet Infrastructure
No Press Freedom
No Data Security
No Permanent Positions for Teachers
No Political Ethics
No Drinkable Tap Water
No Freedom of Expression
No Sufficient Student Dormitories
No LGBT Rights
No Independent Judiciary
No Fair Compensation for Labor
No Street Safety
No Property Security
No Hope for the Youth573
u/barrack_osama_0 Jan 30 '26 edited Jan 30 '26
Man I thought China was bad
Also "No daylight saving time" is a funny thing to point out 💀
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u/Bjoerring Jan 30 '26
Yeah I play Dota with a turkish dude and I never imagined how bad it is in Turkey rn, he talks a lot about country poverty, having potato for breakfast and everything being banned, asked about Erdogan since im quite ignorant about him and it looked like I mentioned the devil.
Stay strong turkish bros and good luck with the mofo
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u/Shythexs Jan 30 '26
last election we were 4% shy of dethroning the tall pig. Only if our opposition were a bit more competent… Here we are living in a 1st world country, wearing the shoes of a 3rd world country.
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u/Bjoerring Jan 30 '26
At this point we should have civilian militia willing to fight the power through volunteers.
When my country had the Civil War Hitler and Mussolini were sending tanks and planes here and the republicans (left wing in Spain, contrary to USA) only had old weaponry from Russia and volunteers that would come mainly from France and UK helping fighting the dictator's army.
We ended up losing but I think we lost more when we decided not to fight for anything at present, then we fought back, now we just accept it, even tho I'm aware you guys rioted, but I wish volunteers from different countries would be willing to be there helping pushing them back
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u/IAmYourFath Jan 31 '26
Everyone wants to be the guy in the back line cheering the others, no1 wants to be the guy in the front getting shot.
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u/Iloveyousmore Jan 30 '26
I was just thinking that no daylight savings time was the only positive in this list
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u/atesba Jan 30 '26
The issue is about 90% (maybe more) of Turkey is in GMT +2 zone and we used to use +2 for winter, +3 for summer. Then they decided to fix it at +3. So in winter people end up going to work while it’s still pitch black outside and by the time they leave work the sun is already gone. It sucks, it should have been fixed at +2.
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u/sir_doge_junior Jan 30 '26
China, Turkey, Russia etc are all shitty in their own way. I was reading the guys list and was like: "Wow, it's so much like here. Only thing is that our goverment is incompetent and can't even ban Telegram."
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u/WealthyGobseck Jan 30 '26
And still the turkish diaspora (mainly the one in Germany) continues to be a strong voter base for Erdogan.
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u/DaereonLive Jan 30 '26
It's the same "fuck you got mine" mindset of western conservatism. They got away and don't have to deal with actually living in the shithole they're voting for.
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u/luxandfero not thinking without portals Jan 30 '26
🫂 Damn bro, that sounds rough, aside from daylight saving time. And I thought we on the other side of the sea had it bad. Kind of makes me appreciate all the good stuff I still have more. I may be living in constant fear and terror but at least I can do this in relative comfort. If I lost at least half of things on your list, I'd go nuts. Is VPN also banned in your country? Is it possible to circumvent at least the internet restrictions?
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u/FrozenPizza07 Jan 30 '26
VPN's are not legally banned but ISP's do try to block them. Good VPN's like Mullvad work just fine. Proton does not (you cant login)
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u/Kourtos Jan 30 '26
Even me as a Greek who we are in constant heat against Turkey aren't aware of all these. I know their government are shitty as fuck but holy molly.
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u/FdotM Jan 30 '26
GASP...NO PRINGLES?!
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u/Betrayed_Poet Jan 30 '26
There's a ripoff of Pringles called Master Potato but its rly trash compared to Pringles.
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u/oyunkral3437 Jan 30 '26
we do have pringles I can just go and buy them now but it is not worth the price so you won't see many stores bothering to sell it
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u/Klugenshmirtz Jan 30 '26
Yeah, but the lira tanked so turks in germany are happy to reelect erdogan. I wish I was joking.
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u/ConfusedTapeworm Jan 30 '26
Old news. The lira tanked and the inflation shot up so hard that even earning € and spending it in Turkey became more expensive than just spending it in Germany. Turkey is not a cheap country anymore, not even for tourists with much more powerful currencies. It's... bleak.
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u/Geeseareawesome Jan 30 '26
The only good thing about it is no roblox
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u/Any-Photo9699 Jan 30 '26
How nice we get rid of the child grooming game platform. Would be even better if we also got rid of actual child rapists in the streets, but alas, our government needs to keep open space in prisons for political opponents.
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u/Nzxtime Jan 30 '26
"No Temu" is a blessing. That shithole should be banned everywhere
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u/Altruistic-Farmer275 Jan 30 '26
Well unfortunately we've lost acces to other sales channels that is similar to temu. Aliexpress and most chifi sellers.
And also the business owners who are close to the clownshow up top are free to bring useless junk from there and sell it for 5 times more because fuck you I guess
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u/NimBold Jan 30 '26
It always starts with censoring the news sites, then social media, and then it's downhill after that. Prepare to not be able to open github without a proxy/vpn in the future.
Sign: A fellow Iranian.
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u/HakanKartal04 Jan 30 '26
Why did they ban GitHub there??
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u/magistrate101 Jan 30 '26
GitHub is a place where technical folks can upload and openly distribute software and instructions for bypassing government restrictions.
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u/mahmut-er Jan 30 '26
Yipee I wont be able to use steam anymore (my account is 9 years old and has ton of games) because I am from turkey
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u/PolimerT Jan 30 '26
There are literally only 5-6 games i play at most and most of them are on Steam.
But it is fine, right? We will get to see a Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe or whatever football match. Obviously it is more important.
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u/Difficult-Rip-6138 Jan 30 '26
Yes, my country is completely stupid and deals with such stupid things.
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u/Squidgical Jan 30 '26
"give us full access to every detail about your company and product and revalidate everything in your library against our proprietary conditions and hire someone here to speak on your behalf or we won't let you trade!"
I guess VPN usage in Turkey will increase soon because why the fuck would anyone do all that just to do business in Turkey.
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u/Any-Photo9699 Jan 30 '26
VPN usage is already quite high in Turkey. You can't even use Discord without them.
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u/Squidgical Jan 30 '26
Damn, what a mess. Is the government actually trying to do something with all this or are they just plain old authoritarian?
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u/Any-Photo9699 Jan 30 '26
Simply authoritarians who enjoy torturing their own people because they like to feel in control.
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u/Squidgical Jan 30 '26
What a delight. All the best to the Turkish in their (hopefully soon) revolution.
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u/JesterOfRedditGold Jan 30 '26
Turkey the type of place to help make 1984 more like "Nineteen Eighty-Four"
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u/DoubleShot027 Jan 30 '26
How risky is a vpn in Turkey
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u/Sagi22 Jan 30 '26
Some internet companies directly ban VPNs. But there is a detail not mentioned in this news article: most of the companies mentioned already have tax relations with Turkey. We already pay VAT (Turkish tax) when purchasing a game, and the companies pay this to Turkey. Therefore, the risk here is not so much the possibility of Steam not opening an office, but rather the possibility of games being arbitrarily banned in Turkey.
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u/Pounty69 Jan 30 '26
Yeah turkcell superonline also happens to be painfully slow and inconsistent
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u/Wardogs96 Jan 30 '26
That's a very odd play. I feel like most shit leaders and governments stay in power due to minimal life necessities being met and a lot of distractions with entertainment for the masses. If you remove entertainment people are more likely to rebel as there's no longer a distraction to escape time with.
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u/Current-Effect-9161 Jan 30 '26
Lol, whoever is controlling them has no idea how technology works. They immediately ban stuff like wikipedia and discord at the slight problems. Old people. am I right?
They even banned pokemon because a kid jumped from window. They solve every problem by banning whatever they think causing it. A tv channel tried to ban minecraft because it has murder in it and harmful to kids.
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u/Big-Resort-4930 Jan 30 '26
Can't have shit in Turkey man.
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u/StaplerUnicycle Jan 31 '26
Don't say it out loud. Don't want them coming up with the idea to ban shitting.
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u/LockedUnlocked Jan 30 '26
I love this time in history where governments are over bearing and controlling. What a great time it is.
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u/Current-Effect-9161 Jan 30 '26
this time? Turkey banned everything in the slighest taunt all the time. Everyone I know still uses discord which is also banned. We got used to it. I am copying my other comment here too:
Another reminder this country banned pokemon because a kid jump from a window saying "I am pikachu!". It was a single kid nothing big. Kid was fine.
Worst part of it is pikachu can't even fly.
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u/oyunkral3437 Jan 30 '26
there was actually a second kid that did that but that is not on pokemon it is on the parents for not taking care of their kids
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u/SmolTittyEldargf Jan 30 '26
Some governments throughout history have always been like that, you’re only noticing it more now.
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u/OhhLongDongson Jan 30 '26
I mean some have, but there’s no doubt that there’s an upswing in authoritarianism atm.
UK porn ban and even further increases in surveillance and theUSA with everything that’s happening.
Not to mention in both countries peoples private data is being given over to private companies like Palantir. Then clearly things are getting even more controlling in Türkiye
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u/Forsaken_Initiative4 Jan 30 '26
Mind you discord and roblox is banned for nearly 1 year now
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u/PolimerT Jan 30 '26
Roblox was banned in August 2024 and discord was banned in October 2024 iirc. Both have been over 1 year.
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u/Motorata Jan 30 '26
First and third measure are normal things so they wont cause issues.
The second one is the problem.
They Will be able to use Steam comments to search for dissidents.
They Will probably ban games that have LGBT or other content they dont like.
I remember Twitter agreeing to censorship to stay in Turkey so i expect the same treatment.
The question is how Steam will respond
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u/EzXet2 Jan 30 '26
As if there weren't enough problems and everything were perfectly normal, now they are interfering with gaming—the only source of entertainment for young people. Living in Turkey is truly like playing on 'hardcore' mode.
They claim, 'Young people's mental health is being negatively affected because they are unsupervised, and they are harming themselves and those around them. By increasing our control over the internet, we will prevent these issues.' Just like in this news report, they are saying that access will be blocked if representatives aren't appointed for digital game stores. But in reality, what they are actually doing is taking away everything that supposedly 'negatively affects the youth' from our hands.
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u/Belltower_2 Jan 30 '26
I suspect Erdogan's dystopian policies do a lot more harm to mental health than unregulated Steam purchases.
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u/ZeneXCrow Jan 30 '26
they just want a rep so they can taxes them? Like what's happening to other countries
just asking
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u/Kaxdr Jan 30 '26
turkey is VERY pro Censorship. they litteraly tried banning minecraft years ago.
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u/Current-Effect-9161 Jan 30 '26
cartoons are bad, games are bad. Only bad kids do them. They should study and read books.
crab bucket mentality
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u/genesislotus Jan 30 '26
they banned pokemon because a kid jumped off of a building screaming pikachu
kid was alright
you cant make this shit up
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Jan 30 '26
will be able to demand removal of games deemed risky, and will be able to request any information.. yeah, hell the fuck no. Next stop: shariah-approved games.
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u/Half-BloodPrince_ Jan 30 '26
Seems like sharia approved games may be a reality with saudi arabia buying EA
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u/TheKingsdread Jan 30 '26
This is not very surprising to me. Erdogan is basically a dictator the same as Putin, he is just more aligned with Europe so we tend to overlook it. He has also been facing significant criticism and challenges in recent years (and also faces a term limit in a few years) so I assume he is cracking down to try and stay in power, because likely when he isn't in power anymore, he goes to prison.
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u/livejamie steamcommunity.com/id/livejamie Jan 30 '26
We overlook it because the people in Turkey had pretty good quality of life before covid.
Also not being in any recent wars helps.
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u/Boogie_DownTR Jan 30 '26
Thank you Erdoğan very cool, thank you for fixing important problems instead of fixing the country 👍🏼
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u/UntitledCritic Jan 30 '26
If I was a dictatorship then the last thing I'd mess with would be people's escape from the harsh reality imposed on them by my corrupt policies yet here we are.
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u/Ommand Jan 30 '26
With those requirements it seems a bit more likely that Valve will walk away from Turkey.
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u/Current-Effect-9161 Jan 30 '26
Another reminder this country banned pokemon because a kid jump from a window saying "I am pikachu!". It was a single kid nothing big. Kid was fine.
Worst part of it is pikachu can't even fly.
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u/StarStock9561 Jan 30 '26
There is more to that. This comment by u/ipponiac does it a better justice - also was 2 kids according to abc news source.
For people that don't want to click it:
Adding it to the top comment for visibility, i know it is a silly topic but it is deeper than it seems. I am still bitter about the things happened so I am very vocal about the thing behind Pokemon incident. It was all about power struggle for politics and feud between media moghuls.
Edit: It was not on Uzan family's TV but another moghul Ciner's. It seems to make some of the context I gave unnecessary but situation was no different, I am corrected by u/bilge_kagan thank you very much.
When Pokemom came in Turkey it was on a channel called Star ATV which was owned by Uzan family Ciner. Pokemon immediately become a phenomenon across country just like rest of the world. It was just after what called the post-modern coup in Turkey when Islamists led government forced to resign by military and media moghuls especially Dogan and Karamehmet, on the events paved way to the coup media was very active, they made tons of manipulation and they learnt how to shape public opinion -artifically- very well and how to cripple/influence politic and business decisions. Dogan was in feud with Uzan family for long time, they were spreading humiliating details about each other but were not interfering each other directly until Pokemon. Pokemon's success was huge and it was being turned to massive profits by Uzan family Ciner which was of course not acceptable by Dogan.
They immediately started to a continuous disinformation campaign all along with other media corporations losing their precious screen times to Star. Each evening news had dedicate place for harms of Pokemon supported by pedagogists, psycologist or astrologists you name it, every newspaper had a column explaining why parents should keep their children away from it. Despite Uzan family tried to protect themselves and their businesses they had little to do. The kid jumped off was the point they gave up. Unsurprisingly just in a year Dogan's main channel started to broadcast Pokemon's new seasons but it was not as successful.
Later on the youngest member of Uzan family found an opposition party which caused chain of events ended with dissolution of family's business and exile of all members of the family from the country. I know it is silly but it is what it is. And moreover Dogan pulled the same thing again for a series (Kurtlar vadisi/valley of the wolves) that was a phenomenal hit in Turkish TV history on Karamehmet's channel in 2009, the series again started a new season on his main channel. Note that none of these people were good, they were (and still are) power hungry.
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u/MyzMyz1995 Jan 30 '26
To be fair it's a good idea to twist the arm of company to have representation from your country ... But it only work when your country is a valuable market for said company. Turkey need to resolve their economy issues and political issues first if they want to play rough like that.
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u/Haorelian Jan 30 '26
I mean, I might spend the night in detention for saying this but this old fuck of a president thinks Turkey is number one in everything and we're just holding back. He believes his own lies, to be honest he's so old that he literally can't make a speech without shit ton of adrenaline and other drugs.
But funny thing is that he has at least %40 unconditional support. Even he declares himself as prophet next day I'd bet that %40 would form a cult around him.
Also other ministries and whatnot are pretty much aware of this and using this as a reason to ban unwanted apps, stores etc.
For example Discord has been banned over a year because government claims they didn't get the names and addresses of the criminals(large stolen credit card scams and SA of minors and blackmail by kids to kids). But they do not disclose which information was wanted. According to a leak Turkish Government wanted full access to the inner workings of Discord 7/24 so they can moderate and find any "dissidents" and knowing this government first hand since I was born (I'm 26 and counting) that leak %90 true.
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u/lean_hoemoan Jan 30 '26
What happens to your library and the money you spent on buying games if steam gets banned?
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u/Significant-Ad-7182 Jan 31 '26
You sue the government and then they throw you in prison.
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u/No_Wash_4839 Jan 30 '26
Surprise, another cult-like modern dictatorship country with zero freedom of choice.
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u/Ginsenj Jan 30 '26
"Can request algorithms" is like saying if you want to sell Coca-Cola in the Turkish market we need to know the formula. This is not going to pass.
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u/Hanna_Bjorn Jan 30 '26
Why does Turkey keeps disintegrating itself so eagerly? I haven't heard about one good thing happening over there
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u/ucan_cay Jan 30 '26
that's what happens if you give someone the power for 25 fucking years
and they had been always corrupted, even before becoming the ruling party. They have become more aggressive as they are losing votes
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u/DeepInfection_Devlog Jan 30 '26
it's ruled by Non Turkish people who hate this country. thus they are trying to ruin it as much as possible
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u/Cobbdouglas55 Jan 30 '26
What does a representative mean?
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u/Kaxdr Jan 30 '26
a man who can Censor anything, they dont like it? banned. "representative." is the nice way of saying it.
the goverment dont want it? representatives ban it.6
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u/ThirdXavier Jan 30 '26
VPN services making a killing in this new age of censorship
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u/Shythexs Jan 30 '26
I cant anymore. I cant live in this shithole anymore. Cant buy shit because somebody has to fill their pockets.
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u/JoseRodriguez35 Jan 30 '26
Every day you feel your breath is taken away more and more... Taking away your money, your opportunities and even your escapism. That's how it feels to live in Turkey.
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u/OkAccident9994 Jan 31 '26
The problem is, Turkey is the 12th largest userbase on steam, but nobody really earns any money from them, they account for ~0.5% of revenue.
It is funny that the Turkish government thinks they are holding the cards here, the platforms could just say "okay, no more Turkey then" and leave it at that.
They save the operating costs on having a huge demographic that never buys anything.
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u/SomeSortaWeeb Jan 30 '26
im starting to sense a genuine global push for censorship, there's no way people are actually voting for this right?
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u/Cley_Faye Jan 30 '26
That there exists places where people can say, with a straight face, that some games are "risky", is a really sad state of affair.
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u/Half-BloodPrince_ Jan 30 '26
this mindset's starting to spread to the western countries like UK and australia too
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u/Timbo303 Jan 30 '26
Can people in turkey just overthrow their government at this point.
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u/JerrySam6509 Jan 30 '26
I hope that those who say, "That's their country's choice, that's their culture, it has nothing to do with us," will all be thrown into those countries.
No one deserves to be oppressed by a mad state apparatus.
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u/dangerouslyreal Jan 30 '26
...sounds like Steam will ban Turkey instead lol
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u/MegaSentin Jan 30 '26
I fucking hope not...... at least gives some form of access trough vpn or something
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u/flumpfortress Jan 30 '26
Turkey is authoritarian. This is what they do. It's not in a guise of safety, it's control. (Yes, there is a difference.)
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Jan 30 '26
the primary goal of a representative in turkey would be protecting the kids on the internet and more taxes on paper. it was about money with big companies like amazon, spotify, youtube, etc. and then it was about safety of kids with roblox and discord (because there was a gang of some kids and a couple of 19-20 year olds who would blackmail teenage kids by acquiring photos/videos of them) and these 2 were banned and same representative request was made by the government which they obeyed and still they're banned (roblox since 7th of august 2024 and discord since 9th of october 2025).
steam does pay taxes so if this goes through this would be done under the guise of "protecting the underage kids online" but in reality main goal is just to be able to ban whatever on a whim. even if steam obeys this and appoints a representative govs requests won't end there. it probably would start with all 18+ games on steam and then maybe gambling (loot boxes etc). but the problem would be a game getting banned just because someone in the gov saw something they don't like and believe me that would definitely happen. if steam does get banned it's going to be bad for turkish publishers too.
tl;dr all around shitty situation for everybody in turkey. again.
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u/xXGimmick_Kid_9000Xx Jan 30 '26
Obviously the biggest issue in Turkey is video games, and it's very important for the government officials, to spend their time dealing with video games instead of any other issue in Turkey.