Discord: Why the messaging app is under scrutiny

Why have Russia and Turkey blocked Discord?

The telecoms regulator in Russia banned Discord on Tuesday, citing the failure of the app to "prevent the use of messaging for terrorist and extremist purposes, recruiting citizens to commit them, sale of drugs, and ... the posting of illegal information."

Russian regulator Roskomnadzor said Discord was "actively used by criminals" and that the platform had failed to comply with an order issued on October 1 demanding the removal of nearly a thousand items of content.

Roskomnadzor had previously fined the San Francisco-based app for failing to remove banned content.

The Kremlin has regularly targeted Western social media platforms, particularly since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Among the technology platforms now banned in Russia are X, formerly Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

The ban has drawn criticism from pro-military bloggers who said Russian forces had been using Discord to coordinate units on the battlefield in Ukraine. According to the bloggers, Russian soldiers have been left without an effective alternative.

Moscow's move was followed a day later by Turkey, whose BTK communications authority blocked the app nationwide after a ruling by a court in Ankara.

Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said the decision was made to "protect" children from online abuse when using Discord.

"We are determined to protect our young people and our children... from harmful and criminal publications on social media and the internet," Tunc wrote on X.

Turkish prosecutors began an investigation into Discord on October 5 over allegations that some Discord users were blackmailing young children to take nude images of themselves and post them in groups, news agency Anadolu reported.

The platform also raised eyebrows among Turkish regulators after some users, in private groups hosted on Discord, posted messages praising a recent double murder of two 19-year-old women in Istanbul, local media reported.

What other regulatory scrutiny is Discord under?

In the United States, Discord has been investigated by the FBI in criminal cases where the platform was allegedly used for grooming minors and spreading images of child sexual abuse.

In one famous case, the leader of the neo-Nazi gang Order of the Nine Angles was arrested after targeting young people for abuse on the app.

In June 2023, NBC News said it had identified 35 prosecutions of adults on charges of kidnapping, grooming or sexual assault through the alleged use of Discord over the previous six years.

NBC News said there were an additional 165 cases where Discord had been allegedly used for so-called sextortion — where children are pressured into sending sexually graphic images of themselves — or sending or receiving child sexual abuse images.

Discord was also denounced in 2017 for allowing its platform to be used to promote a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which erupted in violence and left one person dead. 

The gunman behind the 2022 Buffalo supermarket shooting, which targeted Black Americans, had shared his manifesto and violent plans in a private Discord server, months before the attack, local media reported at the time.

Last year, a serious leak of classified US military documents, detailing the state of Russia's war in Ukraine, was published on Discord.

Germany and France have raised concerns about Discord's data collection practices and how it handles user information, especially for younger users. French regulators fined the platform €800,000 ($875,000) in November 2022 over its failures to abide by the European Union's data protection rules.

Discord, and other large social media networks, now face increased scrutiny over content moderation practices under the EU's Digital Services Act, which requires platforms to quickly remove harmful content.

Several US states have passed legislation to boost the protection of children online, which has also affected Discord. The measures include tougher age verification measures and the protection of personal data​.

What exactly is Discord and why is it so popular?

Discord was first released in May 2015, initially to allow online gamers to communicate while playing. More than half a billion people have downloaded the app and, according to the platform, it has 150 million regular users.

During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, Discord's management widened the platform's focus to include virtually all online communities. 

Discord allows voice and video calls along with text messaging, and users can share content and chat in private or public virtual communities.

Its most popular "server," with 20 million followers, is about the artificial intelligence platform Midjourney.

The platform's voice and text options are integrated in a way that allows users to drop into conversations without direct calling (like through Skype) and switch easily between texting and voice chatting. 

While platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram allow the creation of single-threaded groups, Discord goes one stage further, allowing groups to segment into multiple channels.

The platform has become a meeting place for those who follow counterculture narratives, including the incel (involuntary celibate) movement, hacking groups and cryptocurrency investors. 

Groups espousing controversial political views or spreading hatred and extremist propaganda have been able to flourish on the platform because of Discord's privacy rules and lax content moderation standards, compared to rivals Facebook, Instagram and X.

The platform insists it has strengthened its practices against online harms in recent years, especially those faced by young users.

Edited by: Uwe Hessler