What is Discord and how does the platform work? – 06/26/2023 – Tech

Discord, an online application popular with young people and video game players, works as a platform for text, voice and video conversations. The system created in 2015 has become popular for chatting during online games, with an adult user base and those under 18 years of age, without distinction or barriers.

This Sunday (25), a report by Fantástico revealed cases of Brazilian Discord users who raped and humiliated underage girls in live broadcasts.

The platform is involved in several complaints against groups that promote content involving sexual exploitation, pedophilia, self-mutilation, racism, animal abuse and incitement to murder, in addition to leaking secret information.

In May, Discord said it works to stop what it called “abhorrent content.”

For experts, the versatility made it easy for the platform to become a kind of lawless land with groups that encourage sexual crimes and violence.

Researchers consider Discord to be a light version of 4chan, the far-right anonymous forum known for sharing conspiracy theories.

At the end of 2021, Discord had more than 150 million monthly active users, being valued at $14.7 billion, according to PitchBook, a provider of market data.

What is Discord?

It is a social communication and messaging platform, created in 2015, popular among young people and video game players.

Why are people talking about Discord in Brazil?

Because of recent cases of sexual exploitation, pedophilia, self-mutilation, racism, apology of Nazism, animal abuse and incitement to murders linked to platform groups, which mix adult users with those under 18 years old.

How does Discord work?

It is similar to the Slack work tool. Once registered, each user has their own profile on the site and can participate in servers and also maintain individual chats with other people.

There is no timeline, like on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Instead, Discord is divided into servers — essentially chat rooms — designed for specific groups or interests. These servers are subdivided into individual, topic-based channels.

Users can join public Discord servers, some of which have millions of members. Some servers are dedicated to discussing specific games, such as League of Legends or Fortnite, while others are communities for people to discuss art, music or artificial intelligence. They are similar to Facebook groups.

There are also private Discord servers, which require an invitation to join. These tend to be smaller communities, sometimes for a group of friends who message each other when they are online, like a WhatsApp group. Due to the nature of these small private servers, they often lack the moderation or platform oversight that a larger public server would have.

Why is Discord so popular?

Fabio Assolini, director of Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analytics Team, says Discord’s popularity among teens lies in its ease of use, the features it offers, and the building of communities.

“The platform started to become very niche with gamers, attracting a large teenage audience; then many Youtubers and content creators started using Discord servers to strengthen their relationship with their community. It is a very good application for organizing information, where you can automate many of the functions using Bots, higher file sharing limits, being a very versatile platform”, he says.

For him, another factor to be taken into account in the platform’s popularity is the poor moderation of posted content.

Can minors use Discord?

Discord terms of use require a minimum age of 13 in most countries, including Brazil.

Why is Discord being associated with misogyny?

Because of a report by Fantástico aired this Sunday (25), which shows cases of Discord users who raped and humiliated underage girls in live broadcasts on Discord.

“They are sadists, misogynists, they have a disgust, an aversion to women,” said police chief Fábio Pinheiro Lopes to the report. Misogyny is the term used to define hatred or aversion to women.

How has Discord responded to reports?

According to authorities, the company does not usually collaborate in the investigations and does not store part of the content, such as live video calls.

Discord says it has law enforcement officials handing over information about users and preserving records when it receives “enforceable legal process,” according to the online description of its rules. The company also claims to work with the authorities when cases of “immediate danger” or “self-harm” arise.

In May, after the Sheet had access to groups with videos of aggression, Discord stated that the servers involved were triggered for violating company guidelines. By email, the platform said that security is the priority and that they never stop working in order to “find and remove this heinous content and take action, including banning the users responsible and engaging with the proper authorities”.

The company also claimed to have deleted 99% of servers that were detected as hosting child sexual abuse material in the fourth quarter of 2022 and says it invests in tracking and removing these servers proactively.

Is Discord being investigated in Brazil?

Yes. The state public ministries of at least three states (São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio Grande do Sul) are investigating the platform. In addition, the Santa Catarina Public Prosecutor’s Office monitors criminal groups that use Discord to induce and instigate attacks on schools, child pornography, hate speech, racial, religious and national intolerance. The Federal Public Ministry also investigates cases of child pornography.

Will the eventual approval of the Fake News PL impact Discord?

The project regulates social networks and imposes sanctions on platforms that do not remove illegal content from the air, within 24 hours of a court decision.

In the case of content moderation, the Fake News PL restricts its focus to social networks, search engines and instant messaging services with an average of more than 10 million users in Brazil. As Discord has about 3 million active fans in the country, it would be left out. After the recent complaints, however, the text can be modified to cover the platform.

Who is responsible for Discord?

Discord is the flagship product owned by a privately held company of the same name, led by the app’s founders, developers Jason Citron and Stanislav Vishnevskiy.

How does Discord make money?

By selling premium features within the app, such as animated profile pictures, and investments received from technology specialist funds.

How to ensure safe use of Discord?

One of the ways to increase the safety of using the platform is to use antivirus software to prevent malware or viruses from stealing user data and the use of parental control software to limit the child’s access to the network.

A study carried out in Brazil by the cybersecurity company Kaspersky, in partnership with the consultancy Corpa, reveals that 12% of the parents interviewed caught a stranger contacting their children over the internet.

“It is necessary to have a good conversation with the teenager, frank and open, for the father to know what the child is doing online, because leaving the child with his device without any supervision is something very risky”, says the director of Kaspersky.