Discord

Discord is a chatting platform that hosts many communities. It has a private message feature that allows you to DM people, servers which host many communities, and a voice chat/video chat feature with streaming.

Controversies

Child safety issues

Discord was criticized for allowing cub porn selectively. The staff held that "cub porn" was different from lolicon and shotacon and "allowable as long as it is tagged properly".^[1] After complaints from the community, Discord updated their community guidelines to ban the sexualization of "non-humanoid animals and mythological creatures as long as they appear to be underage", and Discord would announce transparency reports every year.^[2]

Discord was also criticized for failing to handle grooming and pedophiles and banning them. In June 2023, NBC News identified 35 cases of adults being charged with "kidnapping, grooming, or sexual assault." that involved Discord. 165 cases of prosecution for sharing CSAM was also identified.^[3]

Streaming on Discord was blocked in Brazil after others in a livestream told a 13-year-old girl to commit suicide.^[4]

Age verification

Discord was criticized for wanting to implement age verification globally on March 2026, for all users worldwide which sparked backlash from the community against it because it would require users to scan their face or an ID for age verification. This required users to send their info to servers. All accounts that have not verified would default to being a teen account. To prove the user is an adult, they would need to show their face or ID to prove they're 18 and up. Accounts that have not been verified or are teen accounts would have restrictions over what content can be shown.^[5] After backlash from the community, Discord delayed their age verification rollout until the second half of 2026 to address user concerns.^[6]^[7]

IPO filing

Discord was criticized after the company had filed a confidential IPO that wanted to make the company public. The community had argued that if Discord was to go public, focus will shift to investors and shareholders rather than user feedback, and it would result in enshittification.^[8]

[1] ttps://www.polygon.com/2019/1/30/18203692/discord-nsfw-policy-furry-cub/

[2] ttps://www.polygon.com/2019/2/13/18223726/discord-policy-change-nsfw-cub-furry/

[3] ttps://www.engadget.com/discord-still-has-a-child-safety-issue-085304790.html

[4] ttps://www.reuters.com/legal/government/brazil-agency-orders-discord-platform-suspend-livestreaming-over-child-safety-2026-08-12/

[5] ttps://techcrunch.com/2026/02/09/discord-to-roll-out-age-verification-next-month-for-full-access-to-its-platform/

[6] ttps://discord.com/blog/getting-global-age-assurance-right-what-we-got-wrong-and-whats-changing

[7] ttps://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/1rdp2ei/discord_postpones_global_age_verification_to_the/

[8] ttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-06/chat-platform-discord-is-said-to-file-confidentially-for-ipo

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