The popular online gaming platform Roblox, recently banned in Turkey, was found to host a game featuring President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Diken news website reported.
The game, titled “Escape from Taxes (RTE),” tasks players with avoiding “deadly taxes” imposed by a character representing Erdoğan, referred to as “RTE the Boss.”
According to Diken the game, created on March 26, 2021, has been visited by over 1.1 million players. In the game users must dodge various taxes — such as the palace tax, breathing tax, walking tax and luxury vehicle tax — while trying to survive. Players who successfully evade the taxes score the highest points.
The game‘s description invites users to “kill the taxes” if they are tired of paying them. The world in which the game is set features humorous images of Erdoğan in the sky. Players can earn badges, including one for “killing” the “RTE the Boss” character, a feat that nearly 200,000 players have achieved.
The discovery of this game on Roblox comes after Turkey’s Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) imposed a ban on the platform, citing concerns over child exploitation. The existence of the Erdoğan-themed game has sparked further debate about the reasons behind the ban since it highlights the platform’s ability to host user-generated content that can be politically sensitive.
Roblox, developed by American company the Roblox Corporation, allows users to program and play games created by themselves or others. The platform has a large user base among children and teenagers in Turkey. Despite its popularity, Roblox has faced criticism for its content moderation, microtransactions and alleged exploitative practices toward children.
Roblox is not the only video game-related platform to be banned by the Turkish government. In February 2024 the streaming sites Kick and Twitch were banned following controversy over gambling streams.
The recent bans are part of a broader trend of increasing scrutiny and regulation of online platforms by Turkish authorities. President Erdoğan’s administration has been regularly accused of suppressing freedom of expression and information, with Turkey ranking among the “not free” countries in terms of internet freedom, according to Freedom House.
Instagram has been banned in Turkey since Friday, with government officials and President Erdoğan accusing the platform of censorship and failing to remove posts they deem offensive.
Turkish authorities have in the past temporarily blocked access to other social media sites, including Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and Wikipedia.