The Attorney General's Office of the Union (AGU) plans to appeal to the Judiciary to request the suspension of Discord in Brazilian territory. This move was initiated after First Lady Rosângela da Silva, known as Janja, publicly expressed her support for the application's closure during an event held at the Palácio do Planalto.
Currently, the platform remains operational because any block depends on a future judicial determination. The governmental motivation arose from a police investigation related to the death of a 13-year-old girl, whose suicide was allegedly induced during a live stream conducted on Discord. According to the federal government, the company fails to comply with Brazilian legislation and does not implement efficient safeguards to protect children and adolescents against virtual crimes.
Launched in 2015, Discord began as an application focused on video game players, allowing them to communicate via voice and text while playing on mobile or computer devices. Over time, the service gained popularity and started hosting various communities with diverse themes, including study groups, friend interactions, and work environments.
Unlike social networks such as Instagram or X (formerly Twitter), Discord does not feature a continuous feed of posts. Its operation is based on virtual spaces called 'servers.' Each server acts as an autonomous environment, which can be open to all users or restricted, requiring a specific invitation for access.
Within these servers, communication is structured into thematic channels, offering rooms for exchanging text messages, sharing photos and files, as well as audio and video channels for real-time conversations. Participants are free to enter or leave these virtual areas at any time.
A prominent feature of Discord is Go Live, which allows a user to share their device screen (computer or phone) in real time with other channel members. This enables the broadcasting of game matches, videos, or any activity displayed on the device to a limited group of viewers.
This private browsing configuration constitutes Discord's main distinction compared to other digital platforms. While live streams on services like YouTube or TikTok are generally public, on Discord, the content is restricted to authorized members of each room. This privacy dynamic makes content monitoring a challenge for authorities.
In recent years, Discord has been the target of police investigations in the country. Intelligence reports and security force actions indicate the use of its servers to commit serious crimes, such as coercion of minors, extortion using intimate photos, encouragement of self-harm, promotion of extremism, and animal abuse. However, investigations conducted by the Civil Police show that initial contact with victims rarely occurs within the platform.
Civil Police Analysis on Platform Usage
Lisandrea Salvariego Colabuono, head of the Digital Operations and Linkages Unit (Noad) of the São Paulo Civil Police, stated in an interview with Olhar Digital that, in reality, Discord represents the endpoint of criminal acts. She explained that victim solicitation happens much earlier, on other platforms.
In this scenario, Discord serves as the location where abuses are executed and broadcast live. For the authorities, despite the private room architecture making oversight difficult, the biggest impediment lies in the ineffectiveness of the company's own control systems. The head of Noad pointed out that the closed architecture would not be a problem if the moderation system were functioning properly.
In addition to failing to prevent illegal content, the police point to operational difficulties in complying with judicial warrants. The company's slowness in responding to requests for secrecy breaches and in removing rooms with ongoing criminal broadcasts has hindered the progress of inquiries and the recovery of victims in several states.
This delay in providing information for investigations was a central point in the dossier sent by Noad to the Public Prosecutor's Office. Colabuono detailed that the deficiencies are essentially concentrated on the delay in deleting the server used in the crime broadcast (when requested urgently) and the slowness in providing registration data of users involved in the crimes.
Due to the history of non-compliance and the absence of preventive measures by the company, the specialized sector of the São Paulo Civil Police has begun advocating for the network's blocking in Brazil. The head of Noad concluded that judicial blocking is necessary given the multiple non-compliances reported by various police institutions in the country and the company's inaction in protecting users, even though it has known about the situation for a long time.
Olhar Digital requested clarification and an official position from Discord but received no response by the publication of this article.
