(DCNF)—Another state sued chat platform Discord on Friday over alleged failure to safeguard against child sexual abuse.
The popular gaming site systematically allows strangers to contact minors, relies heavily on unpaid volunteers to moderate the platform for exploitative conduct and does not enforce violations of rules rigorously, among other missteps, Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office claimed in its lawsuit. Discord faces three other lawsuits from Republican states over similar claims as its reputation suffers from reports of users’ encounters with online pedophiles and abductors, including abusive cult-inspired networks investigated by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Discord has not made meaningful changes “despite escalating notice from federal prosecutors, the United States Senate, the Federal Trade Commission and the attorneys general of multiple states, including Texas,” the lawsuit says. Texas asked a court to find Discord liable for unlawful business practices and require it to upgrade its age verification system, default all account safety settings to maximum protection, surrender money earned from the unlawful conduct and other demands.
“The lawsuit’s characterization of Discord does not reflect the platform we have built or the investments we have made in user safety,” a Discord spokesperson told the DCNF. “Discord is a communications platform built to connect people around playing games. Users join Discord communities intentionally, based on their interests, and unlike social media, the platform has no algorithmic feed, infinite scroll, or public ‘likes’ pushing content to mass audiences.”
“Our safety systems combine advanced technology and human-led investigations, alongside user reports to help identify accounts or spaces engaged in harmful activity, including sharing exploitative and child sexual abuse materials,” the spokesperson said. “We provide teen users and their parents and guardians with important privacy and safety tools, including Teen Safety Assist and our Family Center. We look forward to collaborating with policymakers in working toward a safer online experience for all users on Discord and across the internet.”
Paxton’s office, however, cited an April 2025 statement from U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton describing how an alleged predator in one recent case “used Discord as a hunting ground to find, manipulate, and sextort our most vulnerable in a horrific scheme to obtain child pornography.”
The state also pointed to the online rise of “764,” a loose network of what the FBI calls “nihilistic violent extremists” coercing children into performing sexual acts or harming themselves after befriending them online. Such networks have found multiple ways to evade Discord bans and keep reappearing on the platform, a DCNF investigation found.
Paxton’s office highlighted data reported by KCRA showing a drastic increase in federal cases mentioning Discord from 2017 to 2025, with about half relating to child exploitation. The ease with which predators weaponize Discord is a feature, not a bug, the state argued.
“The de facto default moderation state for the majority of Discord servers is: nothing automated, one overworked volunteer moderator, and a report button that feeds into a queue,” Paxton’s office alleged.
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