Discord

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Discord

Basic information
Founded	2015
Legal Structure	Private
Industry	Software, Social Media
Also known as
Official website	https://discord.com

Discord is a proprietary VoIP and instant-messaging platform developed by Discord Inc. (formerly Hammer & Chisel, Inc.), co-founded by Jason Citron and Stanislav Vishnevskiy. Launched in 2015, the service has grown to over 150 million monthly active users as of 2025. While initially marketed towards PC gamers, Discord has expanded to multiple platforms, serving various communities and use cases, including education.

In April 2025, Humam Sakhnini (formerly King, Activision Blizzard) replaced Jason Citron as CEO.

Consumer Impact Summary

Privacy

Mentioned within the Discord ToS and Privacy Policy:

• Collects a variety of user data, such as contact details, user generated messages and posts (including drafts), voice messages, payment information, server participation, device information such as which games users are playing, log and event information related to use of Discord services, information from cookies and third party sources.
• Claims broad rights to user-generated content.
• Deleted messages are stored for undefined periods.
• Retains personal information until deemed "no longer needed".
• Processes user content for "safety features and platform improvement".
• Shares data with related companies, vendors, and third-party service providers.
• Opt-out behavioral tracking across platform features for personalization.
• Maintains logs of IP addresses and device information for an undetermined amount of time, flags any user who has ever signed in with an EU IP address for inclusion within DSA transparency reports
• Sends a web request when any UI element is clicked & when typing

In 2019, Discord started requiring phone verification. The account will be locked until a phone number is added, regardless of account age or recent activity. The account will be automatically locked if the phone number is removed.

Freedom

Mentioned within the Discord ToS and Privacy Policy:

• Mandatory binding arbitration with class-action waiver for U.S. users (Started 19 October 2018).
• Users grant a perpetual, transferable license to their content.
• Users must accept the broad terms of service, which allow for unilateral changes.
• Accounts can be terminated without prior notice at Discord's discretion.

• No option to opt out of core data collection while using the service.
• Content may be retained by Discord even after deletion.
• Server owners have limited recourse if their servers are banned.
• Forced to use Discord's payment processing for all monetary transactions.

Transparency

Discord's terms of service are lengthy and complex. In October 2025, the base terms are 29 pages, with a reading level of 14th grade (Junior in college) and an estimated reading time of 42 minutes. The 2021 version of Discord's ToS would take an estimated 275+ hours to read.

Mentioned within the Discord Privacy Policy and Community Guidelines:

• Unclear processes for handling law enforcement requests.
• Vague about specific data retention time frames.
• Limited transparency regarding content moderation decisions.
  • In some instances, the offending content is not displayed to the user, nor is any metadata, filenames, timestamps, or even the originating channel shown.
  • No limits or restrictions on the age of content (e.g., users can be suspended due to something sent 1500 days ago)
• Server ban appeals process lacks transparency.
• Limited disclosure of recommendation algorithm factors.
• There is no clear disclosure of how the content is used for platform improvement.

Incidents

Introduction of forced arbitration (Oct. 2018)

In October 2018, forced arbitration was added to the terms of service. Users could opt out by sending an 'opt-out notice' to [email protected] within 90 days of the ToS going in effect or registering their first account.

Child safety concerns (June 2023)

An NBC News investigation in June 2023 uncovered widespread child safety issues on Discord, revealing systemic problems with the platform's user protection measures.

Investigators identified 35 separate cases where adults were criminally charged with "kidnapping, grooming, or sexual assault" involving contacts initiated through Discord. Additionally, 165 criminal prosecutions involving the sharing of child sexual exploitation material (CSAM) on the platform were documented.

FTC data collection investigation (Sept. 2024)

In September 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a comprehensive report examining Discord's data collection practices as part of a broader investigation into the data collection practices of social media platforms.

The investigation revealed Discord collects extensive user data, including:

• Message content and metadata
• Voice-chat participation
• Server membership and activity
• Device and location information

Particular concern was raised about:

• Collection of data from users under 13
• Handling of minors' user information
• Inadequate age-verification systems

The FTC identified multiple areas where Discord's practices put users at risk:

• Identity theft exposure
• Potential stalking risks
• Discrimination concerns
• Mental health and emotional impact

The FTC concluded that Discord's data practices posed unacceptable risks to users, particularly minors, and recommended significant reforms to the platform's privacy protection measures.

Reinforcement of forced arbitration (Sept. 2025)

Announced August 29th, 2025, and put into effect September 29th, 2025, Discord updated and re-iterated their forced arbitration clause but gave users another option to opt-out of forced arbitration until October 29th, 2025, for existing accounts, or 30 days after initial agreement for new accounts. Users are automatically opted into the forced arbitration clause unless they take specific action to opt out of it within 30 days. Instead, if users chose to delete their accounts, the platform required them to accept the terms in order to access their account, from which they could then delete it, making acceptance of the new terms mandatory.

An example of Discord forcing users to agree to arbitration if they want to continue using the application.

(2025-09-29) An example of Discord forcing users to agree to arbitration if they want to continue using the application. The terms of service at the time of this screenshot includes forced arbitration and disallows users from filing a class-action lawsuit.

Third-Party Customer Service Data Breach (Oct. 2025)

Main article: Discord / 5CA Data Breach

In October 2025, Discord issued a press release announcing a "Security Incident Involving Third-Party Customer Service [5CA]", in which "the unauthorized party [...] gained access to a small number of government‑ID images (e.g., driver’s license, passport) from users who had appealed an age determination", as well as other personal data provided to support. The number of ID images accessed was approximately 70,000, and the third-party in question was later named as 5CA. The hackers involved in the breach have revealed that the data was accessed via Zendesk.

Announcement of Age Verification Coming in March (Feb. 2026)

In February 2026, Discord issued a press release announcing "enhanced teen safety features rolling out globally", which begins with a "rollout to new and existing users in early March, users may be required to engage in an age-verification process to change certain settings or access sensitive content."

On February 9, 2026, a Change.org petition was created to prevent Discord from implementing the age verification globally.

Discord's Connections to Palantir

Discord in the UK utilizes Persona as a third-party, specialized vendor for age verification, requiring users to submit facial scans or ID to access restricted content.

A since redacted statement on the support.discord.com web-page under the "How to Complete Age Assurance on Discord" article stated: "Important: If you're located in the UK, you may be part of an experiment where your information will be processed by an age-assurance vendor, Persona. The Information you submit will be temporarily stored for up to 7 days, then deleted. For ID document verification, all details are blurred except your photo and date of birth, so only what's truly needed for age verification is used".

This image shows the Screenshorts of the changes support article on Discord's support page

Changes between the 15th of February compared to the 19th of February 2026

After significant backlash from the online community, Discord has changed their statment under the article (As of February 19th, 2026): "Note: Some users in regions outside the UK and Australia may see age-assurance prompts when accessing certain features or settings as part of ongoing experiments."

Discord does not further clarify what the "experiments" entail.

Furthermore; the more detailed help-center article does not contain any mentions of the vendor Persona.

Persona is an identity verification tool producer, that has recieved $200 million dollars from the founders fund, a venture capital group that Peter Thiel is in charge of.

Peter Thiel is also the co-founder of Palantir Technologies Inc, a global surveillance company.

Inactive account deletions

Discord has a deletion policy on inactive accounts, in which accounts that are not used for 2 years or more may be scheduled for deletion. Before the deletion of an inactive account, users may receive an email or text message warning that their account is scheduled for deletion. Such policies could adversely affect those who had good reasons to become inactive for a long time, such as hospitalization, prison incarceration, and being in totalitarian countries that have prolonged internet shutdowns.

Vague moderation

Main article: Discord's irresponsible moderation

Reported often by users on the BBB, Trustpilot , and a dedicated subreddit, users have complained that Discord's moderation is vague. One such user reported that their account was banned after being compromised on the BBB, with an automated system handling the entire process, replying only with templates, and with no human involvement with an automated system handling the entire process, replying only with templates, with no human involved in the appeal process.

Solution to delete an account without agreeing to the updated ToS

• Visit How to delete Discord account and scroll to "Having Trouble Deleting Your Discord Account?" Find the link titled "Reach out to our support team". Direct link subject to user instance - http://dis.gd/support

• Fill out the "Submit a request" form. (A web search for "Submit a request Discord" may help users find the form. Be sure to answer the question "What can we help you with?" with "Help and Support" from the drop-down.) Please fill out the form using the same email address associated with your Discord account, as this process may need to be restarted if it is not. In the form, under "Type of question," there is an option for "Account deletion request". Proceed to fill out and submit the form with any other relevant information. An email will then be sent with further instructions, including how to proceed with account deletion, which involves responding to the email with "I confirm that I would like to delete the account associated with [user email]." The response must be received from the same email as the one associated with the Discord account.

Solution to disable forced updates on Linux

If you're running a .deb installation of Discord, you can disable forced updates by adding "SKIP_HOST_UPDATE": true to ~/.config/discord/settings.json.

An example of how Discord handles its moderation from a user's perspective.