Discord halts livestreams in Brazil after watchdog cites child safety failures
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Discord, the popular platform for gamers to communicate online, said on Monday it suspended its livestreams in Brazil after criticism that it failed to protect children and adolescents. The move takes place in the wake of a suicide case.
Brazil's government under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the country's Supreme Court have tried to regulate the use of the internet by minors, with mixed results so far, at a moment when countries, including Australia, Canada and Indonesia, are undertaking similar efforts.
The decision comes after Brazil's national agency of data protection ordered the suspension last week. The U.S.-based company added it is in conversations “to seek a solution that allows us to reestablish those resources for our users in Brazil.”
“We remain committed to working with public policymakers in Brazil to help create an online experience that is safer for all, on Discord and across the internet,” said the platform.
In July, an underage girl in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul was allegedly coerced by other users into committing suicide during a livestream on the platform, putting the company under increased scrutiny.
Brazil’s first lady Rosângela Lula da Silva, known as Janja, said on Aug. 6 that the platform should be taken offline, citing the case.
“I can’t accept seeing a 13-year-old girl self-harming live on the internet, on Discord, hanging herself and dying,” said Janja at a ceremony in the capital, Brasilia, during which Lula signed a law that increases the punishment for those who commit sexual violence against children and adolescents.
Five teenagers were arrested in connection with the death, according to an Aug. 4 statement by Brazil’s justice ministry.
“Livestreams have been repeatedly used to facilitate violence, harassment and the incitement of self-harm and suicide,” the country's data protection agency said in a statement Wednesday.
The agency cited robust evidence that the company had not sufficiently prevented risks of exposure to content that “represent serious violations of the rights of children and adolescents within its service, especially inducement, incitement, instigation, or assistance to violence, self-harm, and suicide,” it said.
Discord has more than 90 million active daily users worldwide, according to its website.
In a statement to The Associated Press Wednesday, Discord said groups or individuals who promote or encourage violence have no place on the platform. It denied that the July case was shown live.
The platform said it was committed to user safety and has dedicated teams working “to disrupt violent groups, remove violative content and take action against bad actors on our platform.”
It added that it had investigated a private server where individuals involved in criminal activity are believed to have encouraged self-harm, and shut it down before the recent death of the 13-year-old.
In recent years, Discord has been cited in investigations and reports worldwide involving extreme violence, including threats or planning related to school attacks, the distribution of abusive material, grooming and coercion of minors, and the encouragement of self-harm and suicide.
The number of complaints involving Discord between January and July increased by 54% compared to the same period last year, according to data from Safernet Brazil, a nonprofit that defends human rights on the internet.
The case of the 13-year-old girl “is not an isolated episode, but the tragic outcome of a pattern that we have documented and denounced for years,” Thiago Tavares, the organization's president, said in a statement on Aug. 11.
Tavares added that Brazil’s digital law imposed “clear duties of prevention, risk mitigation, age verification and cooperation with the authorities” and that non-compliance must generate accountability.
But Thiago Ayub, director of technology at Sage Networks, a company specializing in network engineering, criticized the agency’s decision, which he attributed largely to Janja’s comment.
“The most immediate consequence is the migration of users that inappropriately and even criminally use the platform to another one which isn’t under the spotlight,” Ayub said. “In this way, the protection of children and adolescents diminishes instead of increasing.”
Brazil rolled out a law seeking to boost protection of minors online earlier this year. The law requires that minors under 16 link their social media accounts to a legal guardian to ensure supervision.
Digital services must also implement an effective age verification mechanism that goes beyond self-declaration that the user is over 18 to protect them from accessing inappropriate or prohibited material.
In February, Discord postponed its controversial age verification policy after receiving backlash from users with concerns about their privacy. It later said in a statement that it was nonetheless rolling out age assurance measures to comply with Brazilian law.
The Trump administration has accused Brazil of targeting American social-media companies, and cited the issue among the reasons for imposing tariffs on Brazilian imports.
In 2024, Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered the shutdown of X until the network owned by Elon Musk complied with orders to remove accounts spreading disinformation.
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Savarese reported from Sao Paulo.
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