Turkey’s Twitch Ban: What Happened and How It Ended

In late February 2024 Turkey blocked Twitch and Kick within two days of each other, and for a week it looked like the country had shut the door on live streaming altogether. It had not. Both blocks were lifted inside the same month — Kick around 26 February, Twitch on 29 February — and both platforms have been reachable from Turkish networks ever since.

We covered the bans as they happened and ended that article by saying time would tell whether they were removed. It did, quickly. This page is the full story with the ending attached: why the National Lottery Directorate moved against two streaming platforms, what the wider crackdown on gambling and money laundering had to do with it, and what is actually restricted in Turkey in 2026.

How the bans unfolded

Kick went first, on 20 February 2024. There was no official statement at the time, but posts from Kick’s MENA representative made the grounds clear enough: gambling-related streams and advertising. Kick had entered Turkey aggressively, pulling well-known Turkish streamers away from Twitch with far better revenue splits, and the question of where that money came from was already being asked.

Twitch, by then owned by Amazon and for years Turkey’s dominant streaming platform, moved quickly once Kick was hit. It restricted the gambling and casino category for Turkish users. It was not enough. Journalist İbrahim Haskoloğlu, who had reported the Kick investigation, said a decision had been taken against Twitch as well, and the platform went dark later that night — 22 February.

Both then did the same thing, at slightly different speeds: they made the gambling content genuinely unavailable from Turkish connections, and the regulator let them back. Kick returned first. BTK lifted the Twitch block on 29 February 2024. Nine days after the first block, the episode was effectively over.

History of gambling restrictions in Turkey

Gambling was once legal in Turkey and has been steadily closed off since. Casinos were shut by legislation in 1998, and online gambling was brought under prohibition by Law No. 5651 on Regulating Broadcasting on the Internet, passed in 2006. That law is the backbone of most access-blocking in Turkey to this day.

The important detail for understanding the 2024 bans is who enforces what. These particular decisions did not come through the usual content-blocking route. They came from the General Directorate of the National Lottery, acting on illegal-betting grounds — which is why they arrived fast, with no lengthy court process, and why the remedy was equally quick once the platforms complied.

The Engin and Dilan Polat case

The Polat case was among the most discussed stories in Turkey in 2023. The investigation, which led to numerous arrests, was primarily treated as a money laundering and fraud matter. Prosecutors found that the couple, known for a lavish social media presence, had moved millions of lira from abroad using false identities and documents, with persistent allegations that the money originated from illegal betting and gambling sites.

Its significance here is indirect but real. After the Polat investigation, the income sources of Turkish influencers and streamers came under serious public and official scrutiny — which is the atmosphere in which a streaming platform funded partly by gambling referrals became a target.

The wider fight against money laundering

Throughout 2023 Turkey ran a series of operations against money laundering, with the Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) appearing constantly in the news. Officials also linked laundering to terrorism financing, which raised the political stakes considerably.

Speaking at a Financial Action Task Force general meeting, Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said efforts would intensify on education and awareness around laundering and terrorism financing, noting that specialised prosecutor’s offices and competent courts had been established in every province. He stressed that Turkey was addressing the deficiencies the FATF had identified. Against that backdrop, action against gambling-adjacent platforms was close to inevitable.

The VPN restrictions of December 2023

Two months before the streaming bans, the Information and Communication Technologies Authority asked internet service providers to block a long list of VPN services, and required that alternative access methods be kept under constant surveillance with traffic changes reported. No official reasoning was published.

The likeliest explanation is continuity with everything above: if the goal is closing off gambling sites, tools that bypass geographic restrictions are part of the same problem from the regulator’s point of view. The practical legacy is that several major VPN providers still do not connect from Turkish networks — NordVPN and Proton VPN among them.

📖 How Turkey restricted VPN services →

Why Kick was the first target

Kick, operated by Kick Streaming Pty Ltd, is reported to be backed by Bijan Tehrani, co-founder of the crypto betting and casino site Stake.com. The platform charged far lower commission on subscriptions than its competitors while paying streamers extremely well, and the arithmetic of that only works with another revenue source.

Viewed plainly, gambling referrals and betting advertising looked like a substantial part of the model. In a country where all forms of gambling are illegal, that made Kick an obvious first move rather than a surprising one.

What is actually restricted in Turkey in 2026

Neither Twitch nor Kick is blocked. Both load normally, and there is no current access-ban decision against either domain. What survives from 2024 is narrower: gambling and casino streams remain unavailable to viewers connecting from Turkey, which was the condition of both platforms returning. Gambling access is illegal in Turkey regardless of how you connect, so that restriction is not something to work around.

The genuinely disruptive restriction came later and gets far less attention. On 16 September 2025, under decision 2025/134, the National Lottery Directorate blocked the domain used by Amazon Interactive Video Service — backend live-streaming infrastructure that Kick is built on. Because it hit shared infrastructure rather than a single site, it took a great deal of legitimate content down with it.

The symptom is unmistakable once you know it: the site loads, chat works, thumbnails appear, and then the video simply never starts. That is not a ban on the platform, and it is why “is Kick blocked again?” keeps resurfacing in Turkish forums when nothing has changed at the domain level.

📖 Is Kick blocked in Turkey? The current answer →

Which VPNs still work from Turkey

A quick note that saves people time: NordVPN and Proton VPN have been inaccessible from Turkey since the December 2023 restrictions. They are strong services elsewhere, but they are not useful recommendations for anyone connecting from inside the country. What matters here is obfuscation and stable routing, not headline speed.

🥇 Surfshark — the most reliable from Turkish networks

Roughly 4,500 servers across around 100 countries, with nearby options in Bulgaria, Germany and the Netherlands that keep latency workable. Around $2.49 a month on the two-year plan with three months added, and unlimited simultaneous connections. Camouflage mode is the feature that matters when a network starts fingerprinting VPN traffic.

Get Surfshark →

🥈 ExpressVPN — routes around tightened filters

No published server count but coverage in more than 105 countries, and the Lightway protocol reconnects faster than most after a drop — which happens often enough on Turkish mobile data to matter. Around $2.49 a month on the current two-year promotion with four extra months, eight devices.

Get ExpressVPN →

🥉 VeePN, TotalVPN and StrongVPN — the budget alternatives

VeePN has stayed reachable from Turkey and drops considerably in price on long plans. TotalVPN is entry-level and handles basic streaming. StrongVPN is an older, quieter brand known for holding a stable connection over long sessions. None would be our first choice, but all are worth keeping in reserve.

Get VeePN → · Get TotalVPN → · Get StrongVPN →

📖 Our full guide to the best VPNs for Turkey →

Frequently asked questions

Is Twitch banned in Turkey?

No. Twitch was blocked on 22 February 2024 and BTK lifted the block on 29 February 2024. It has been accessible from Turkish networks since then and no new block has been imposed.

Why was Twitch blocked in the first place?

The General Directorate of the National Lottery acted on illegal-betting grounds, two days after blocking Kick for the same reason. Twitch had restricted its gambling category for Turkish users, but not before the decision was taken.

How long did the Twitch ban last?

Seven days. The block was imposed on 22 February 2024 and lifted on 29 February 2024. Kick’s ban, imposed two days earlier, lasted roughly six days.

Can I watch gambling streams on Twitch or Kick from Turkey?

No. Both platforms restrict casino and gambling content for Turkish connections, and that restriction is the condition under which they were unblocked. Gambling access is illegal in Turkey regardless of how you connect.

Streams will not play even though the site loads. Why?

The Amazon Interactive Video Service domain was blocked on 16 September 2025 under decision 2025/134. Platforms built on that infrastructure load normally while video fails. Connecting through a server abroad restores playback.

Are VPNs legal in Turkey?

Yes, and they are widely used by businesses and remote workers. What happened in December 2023 was that access to many VPN providers’ own services was restricted, which is why some simply fail to connect rather than being formally outlawed.

Which VPNs work from Turkey?

Surfshark, ExpressVPN, VeePN, TotalVPN and StrongVPN remain reachable. NordVPN and Proton VPN have been inaccessible from Turkey since December 2023.

Conclusion

The February 2024 bans turned out to be leverage rather than prohibition. The regulator wanted gambling content gone from Turkish screens; both platforms complied within days and both came straight back. Read that way, the episode says less about censorship of streaming and more about how seriously Turkey treats betting revenue.

What has proved more durable is the collateral kind of blocking. Taking down shared infrastructure like Amazon IVS achieves the stated goal but breaks a large amount of unrelated content along the way, and it does so in a form most users cannot diagnose. That, rather than any ban on Twitch, is the live problem in 2026.

We update this page whenever the regulator issues a new decision affecting either platform.

Sources

• DonanımHaber — the Twitch access block was lifted
• Free Web Turkey — Kick’s statement on the access block
• DonanımHaber — Amazon’s live video service blocked from Turkey

Originally published 24 February 2024. Last updated: 9 August 2026.