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Discord Halts Livestreams in Brazil Amid Child Safety Concerns Following Tragic Incident
Rio de Janeiro – Discord, the widely used communication platform popular among gamers, announced on Monday it has suspended livestreaming services in Brazil. This decision follows mounting criticism over the platform’s failure to adequately protect children and adolescents, sparked by a recent, tragic suicide case involving a minor.
The Brazilian government, led by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, alongside the nation’s Supreme Court, has been working to regulate minors’ internet use, with varying degrees of success. Similar regulatory efforts are underway globally, including in countries such as Australia, Canada, and Indonesia.
The suspension came after Brazil’s national data protection authority ordered the platform to halt livestreams last week. Discord, headquartered in the United States, stated it is actively engaging with Brazilian authorities to find a way to reinstate these features safely for its users.
“We remain committed to collaborating with public policymakers in Brazil to create a safer online environment on Discord and across the internet,” the company said in a statement.
The move follows a harrowing incident in July, when a 13-year-old girl from Mato Grosso do Sul was reportedly pressured by other users during a livestream into taking her own life. This tragedy has intensified scrutiny on Discord’s safety measures.
Brazil’s First Lady, Rosângela Lula da Silva-known as Janja-called for the platform to be taken offline. “I cannot accept seeing a 13-year-old girl self-harming live on the internet, on Discord, hanging herself and dying,” she said at a ceremony in Brasília, where President Lula signed legislation increasing penalties for sexual violence against minors.
Authorities have arrested five teenagers in connection with the case, as confirmed by the justice ministry on August 4.
Brazil’s data protection agency emphasized the dangers livestreams pose, stating they have been “repeatedly used to facilitate violence, harassment and the incitement of self-harm and suicide.” The agency cited substantial evidence that Discord had not sufficiently prevented exposure to content that violates children’s rights, including incitement to violence and self-harm.
Discord reports more than 90 million daily active users worldwide. In response to the recent events, the platform reaffirmed its stance against violence-promoting groups and denied that the girl’s suicide was broadcast live.
The company highlighted its dedicated teams focused on disrupting harmful groups, removing violating content, and taking action against offenders. It also noted having shut down a private server where criminal encouragement of self-harm was suspected prior to the girl’s death.
Despite these efforts, Discord has been linked in multiple investigations globally to extreme violence, including school attack threats, abusive content distribution, grooming, and promotion of self-harm and suicide. Safernet Brazil, a nonprofit focused on digital rights, reported a 54% increase in complaints involving Discord in the first seven months of this year compared to the same period last year.
“This case is not isolated but the tragic result of a pattern we have documented and denounced for years,” said Thiago Tavares, Safernet’s president. He underscored that Brazil’s digital law imposes clear responsibilities on platforms for prevention, risk mitigation, age verification, and cooperation with authorities-and stressed the need for accountability when these are unmet.
However, some experts, like Thiago Ayub from Sage Networks, criticized the suspension, suggesting it may push users engaged in harmful behavior to less regulated platforms, thereby reducing protections for children.
Related Incident: School Shooting Livestreamed in the Philippines
Discord is not alone among tech giants facing scrutiny over violent content on their platforms. Authorities in the Philippines reported that a ninth-grade student livestreamed a deadly school shooting on social media last week. The incident occurred at a private Catholic high school in Mindanao, where the shooter killed a classmate before taking his own life.
Interior Secretary Victor Remulla confirmed the livestream on social media, which showed the shooter moving through the school hallway in a disturbing first-person shooter style video. The suspect’s Facebook account was subsequently disabled.
Global Moves to Protect Minors Online
Brazil enacted a law earlier this year aimed at strengthening online protections for minors. The legislation requires users under 16 to link social media accounts to a legal guardian for supervision and mandates effective age verification mechanisms beyond self-declaration.
Discord had initially planned to implement a controversial age verification system but postponed it following privacy concerns raised by users. The company later committed to rolling out measures to comply with Brazilian law.
Internationally, governments are increasingly tightening regulations on social media use by children. The UK recently announced plans to ban children under 16 from social media and restrict harmful functions such as livestreaming and communication with strangers. Australia implemented a similar ban last December, although many underage users reportedly circumvent age restrictions.
In a broader regulatory context, Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered the temporary shutdown of Elon Musk’s social media platform X in 2024 due to non-compliance with directives to remove disinformation accounts.
As nations grapple with balancing internet freedom and child safety, Discord’s suspension of livestreams in Brazil highlights the ongoing challenges tech companies face in protecting vulnerable users while maintaining open platforms.