19:10Machine-translated from Azerbaijani by AIRead in Azerbaijani
Discord faces major lawsuit in Brazil
Brazil's federal government has sued Discord, citing serious shortcomings in verifying users' ages and ensuring children's safety. The government is seeking 500 million Brazilian reais, approximately $97 million, in compensation for collective moral damages from the company. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in the capital, Brasília, by the Attorney General's Office (AGU), the Brazilian government's legal representative. If the court grants the government's requests, Discord will be given 15 days to comply with the rules. An additional fine of 500,000 reais is envisaged for each day the requirements are not met. However, the government's main goal is not to obtain money from Discord. The lawsuit demands that the platform make several major changes to its operations in Brazil.
These include detecting and blocking self-harm and extreme violence content in livestreams in real time, creating a dedicated mechanism for reporting cases of sexual extortion to government agencies, and implementing a genuine age-verification system that does not rely solely on users entering their date of birth. The government also demands that accounts belonging to users under 16 be linked to a parent or guardian's account, restrictions be placed on server invitations for new accounts, blocked servers be prevented from being recreated, and a permanent Portuguese-language complaints channel be established. The Brazilian government also wants Discord to open an official office in the country and appoint a legal representative. The platform is also required to have a moderation team proportionate to the number of its users in Brazil.
These include detecting and blocking self-harm and extreme violence content in livestreams in real time, creating a dedicated mechanism for reporting cases of sexual extortion to government agencies, and implementing a genuine age-verification system that does not rely solely on users entering their date of birth. The government also demands that accounts belonging to users under 16 be linked to a parent or guardian's account, restrictions be placed on server invitations for new accounts, blocked servers be prevented from being recreated, and a permanent Portuguese-language complaints channel be established. The Brazilian government also wants Discord to open an official office in the country and appoint a legal representative. The platform is also required to have a moderation team proportionate to the number of its users in Brazil.