Known for its appeal to online renegades, chat platform Discord finds itself in the crosshairs of Turkey and Russia.
Turkey on Wednesday said it was banning Discord under the auspices of protecting young people from abuse.
A day earlier, Russia’s telecoms watchdog Roskomnadzor announced that Discord was being “restricted” due to violation of requirements pertaining to “preventing the use of messaging for terrorist and extremist purposes”.
– Gamer chat –
San Francisco-based Discord was created in 2015 primarily as a platform for people to chat while playing video games, but it has also become a home for folks disenchanted with social media stalwarts like Facebook, Instagram or X, formerly Twitter.
Discord allows communities to set up something called servers, which are virtual spaces where users can chat, share media, and connect with other users who share similar interests.
The platform allows voice and video calls along with text messaging, and sharing of media in exchanges that can be private or done openly in virtual communities.
– Free to speak –
Similar loosely run forums exist at Reddit, with most of the groups connecting over benign topics like hobbies or games, but always with a tinge of being free from censors that some believe hold too much sway over posts at Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat.
An attraction of Discord is that the system is “distributed” from the perspective of how software and data are hosted online, meaning no central entity has complete control over it.
Discord has 150 million users around the world, according to internal data.
The leading Discord server as of April of this year was one dedicated to artificial intelligence powered text-to-image tool Midjourney with some 20 million users, according to Statista.
Discord revenue sources include partnerships and subscriptions for premium features.
After recent controversies, Discord has held firm that user safety is a priority and that content violating its policies can get people banned or servers shut down.
– Not playing nice –
Discord was thrust into the headlines when a trove of sensitive US documents about the war in Ukraine ended up in a chat room on the site in early 2023.
It was not seen as a surprise that hackers and soldiers inclined to play shooter games might be comfortable sharing top secret information on Discord, known for loose control and anonymity.
Discord previously landed in hot water for playing a role in a 2017 right-wing rally in Charlottesville, Virginia which erupted in violence and left one person dead.
The FBI found Discord chats where a white supremacist leader seemed to encourage violence at the event, and Discord said afterward that it banned servers promoting neo-Nazi ideology.
Discord has also been accused of being used to share child pornography and by predators to communicate with minors.
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