Discord, a messenger application (app) frequently used by young gamers, has come under scrutiny for safety management as it has recently been used as an outlet for extremist crimes by teens and people in their 20s in the United States.
According to the Washington Post (WP) and others on the 17th, Tyler Robinson, a suspect in his 20s accused of assassinating U.S. right-wing youth activist Charlie Kirk on the 10th, posted a confession of the crime on Discord just before he was arrested by police. The message was sent to a small, private online group with about 30 participants. However, a Discord representative said, "There is no evidence that Robinson planned the crime or incited violence on the platform."
Discord is a messenger program specialized for gaming. Its hallmark is that anyone can create a "channel" composed of chat rooms and voice rooms to talk with other users. In the early days, it was mainly used among gamers looking for people to play with, but it is gradually emerging as a new social media that replaces existing online communities.
Discord also became a conduit for a crime proclamation in the 2022 mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, that left 10 people dead. Payton Gendron, the 18-year-old shooter at the time, was found to have posted white supremacist content and detailed plans for months on Discord before the crime. After arriving at the crime scene and before opening fire, Gendron sent an invitation post to a small number of people so they could access his Discord posts, and he live-streamed the attack on Twitch, causing shock. In 2023, a 13-year-old boy in Ohio was caught before committing a crime after posting plans for an attack on a Jewish synagogue on Discord.
According to Discord, the app has 200 million monthly active users (MAU) worldwide, and more than 90% use the app for gaming. Usage is reported to be overwhelmingly high among users in their teens and 20s in particular. As Discord's influence in the gamer community grows, there are claims that it is also being used as a conduit for the spread of political extremism, centered on young people who enjoy games.
Discord clearly states on its website that it "does not allow organizing, promoting, or supporting violent extremist organizations," but there are criticisms that such declarations and after-the-fact responses alone make it difficult to stop the spread of extremism. In Korea, during the impeachment motion against former President Yoon Suk-yeol earlier this year, indications emerged that some far-right civic groups attempted "tagging coordinates," or coordinating to post comments on certain articles via Discord.
The Global Network on Extremism and Technology (GNET), a U.K. research group, said in a February report that game-related platforms such as Steam, Twitch, and Discord are being misused as fertile ground for extremists to spread their ideology. It stressed that platform corporations like Discord should strengthen monitoring of harmful content and work to mitigate toxic culture in gamer communities to foster a more inclusive environment.