Discord ordered to halt livestreaming service in Brazil after the death of a 13-year-old girl who was allegedly encouraged by other users to take her own life while using the platform.<\/p>\n
Brazil's National Data Protection Authority, known as the ANPD, opened an investigation on 7 August following reports surrounding the girl's death and has now ordered the messaging platform to disable its "Go Live" function in the country.<\/p>\n
Discord has three business days to comply and could face fines of up to 50m reais \u2013 about $9.7 million \u2013 for each violation of the order.<\/p>\n
Discord told the BBC it was "thoughtfully reviewing" the ANPD's order and said it remained "committed to user safety".<\/p>\n
A Discord spokesperson said, "Groups or individuals who promote or encourage violence have no place on Discord."<\/p>\n
"We swiftly investigated and shut down the private, invite-only server involved shortly after its creation and continue to cooperate with law enforcement in its investigation."<\/p>\n
The company added its investigation into the case had found evidence the alleged criminal activity "was coordinated on other platforms before the Discord server was created" and continued "after the individuals involved were banned from Discord".<\/p>\n
Discord Delays Controversial Age Verification Google Commons<\/p>\n
The ANPD's investigation followed reports that a girl had harmed herself and that another girl, aged 13, died after allegedly being induced to take her own life by other people participating in an online group on Discord.<\/p>\n
The regulator said the circumstances raised the possibility of a serious violation of Brazil's Digital Statute of Children and Adolescents.<\/p>\n
Five teenagers have reportedly been arrested in connection with the 13-year-old girl's death.<\/p>\n
Discord, which is available through desktop computers and mobile devices, allows users to establish private and public communities known as servers.<\/p>\n
Its "Go Live" function enables users to broadcast their screen or video to other people in real time.<\/p>\n
The service grew particularly rapidly among gamers but has expanded beyond gaming communities and says it has more than 200 million monthly active users.<\/p>\n
The ANPD reportedly found Discord does not have real-time access to the content of livestreams on its platform, limiting its ability to use automated systems to identify potential violations while broadcasts are taking place.<\/p>\n