Discord

Discord

Basic information
Founded	2015
Legal Structure	Private
Industry	VoIP communications, instant messaging, videoconferences, content delivery, and social media
Also known as	Discord Inc.
Official website	https://discord.com

Discord is a proprietary VoIP and instant-messaging platform developed by Discord Inc. (formerly Hammer & Chisel, Inc.), co-founded by Jason Citron and Stanislav Vishnevskiy.^[1] Launched in 2015, the service has grown to over 150 million monthly active users as of 2025. While initially marketed towards PC gamers, Discord has expanded to multiple platforms, serving various communities and use cases, including education.^[2]

In April 2025, Humam Sakhnini (formerly King, Activision Blizzard) replaced Jason Citron as CEO.^[3]

Mentioned within the Discord ToS^[4] and Privacy Policy:^[5][6]

• Collects a variety of user data, such as contact details; user generated messages and posts, including drafts; voice messages; payment information; server participation; device information, such as games being playing; log and event information related to use of Discord services as well as information from cookies and third party sources^[7]
• Claims broad rights to user-generated content
• Stores deleted messages for undefined periods
• Deleting your account does not delete your messages, must delete messages before account deletion
• Retains personal information until deemed "no longer needed"
• Processes user content for "safety features and platform improvement"
• Shares data with related companies, vendors, and third-party service providers
• Opt-out behavioral tracking across platform features for personalization
• Maintains logs of IP addresses and device information for an undetermined amount of time, flags any user who has ever signed in with an EU IP address for inclusion within DSA transparency reports
• Sends a web request when any UI element is clicked and when typing

In 2019, Discord started requiring phone verification. The account will be locked until a phone number is added, regardless of account age or recent activity. The account will be automatically locked if the phone number is removed.^[8][9]

In order to use Discord, users must agree to the Discord ToS^[4] and Privacy Policy, which includes agreeing to:^[5]

• Mandatory binding arbitration with class-action waiver for U.S. users (From 19 October 2018)
• Granting a perpetual, transferable license to user content
• Broad terms of service, which allow for unilateral changes
• Termination of user accounts without prior notice at Discord's discretion
• No option to opt out of core data collection while using the service
• Discord possibly retaining content even after deletion by the user

Additionally, server owners have limited recourse if their servers are banned, and users are required to use Discord's payment processing for all monetary transactions.

Discord's terms of service are lengthy and complex. In October 2025, the base terms are 29 pages long, with a reading level of 14th grade (equivalent to two years of tertiary education) and an estimated reading time of 42 minutes.^[10] The 2021 version of Discord's ToS would take an estimated 275+ hours to read.^[11]

Mentioned within the Discord Privacy Policy^[5] and Community Guidelines:^[6]

• Unclear processes for handling law enforcement requests
• Vague about data retention time frames
• Limited transparency regarding content moderation decisions^[12][13]
  • Offending content not always displayed to the user, including metadata, filenames, timestamps, or the channel where it was posted
  • No limits or restrictions on the age of content (e.g., users can be suspended due to something sent 1500 days ago)
• Lack of transparency in the server ban appeals process^[12][13]
• Limited disclosure of recommendation algorithm factors
• No clear disclosure of how the content is used for platform improvement

Discord provides no in-app bulk message deletion; instead, you must request your data, then send Discord support a data deletion request via their privacy form. You must provide the desired message id’s and the channel id’s they were sent in, which makes this process difficult. You will receive your data to the email tied to the account. If you change the email before receiving the data, your data will not be redirected to the new email. Your request will also be canceled if you disable or delete your account before receiving the data.

Once discord begins message deletion it can take up to 24 hours for all requested messages to be deleted. After 24 hours have passed, you'll need to request your data package again to confirm all requested messages have been deleted. You can only request your data again 30 days after you previously requested data.

A third-party website, Discorch, makes this process significantly easier. Discorch contains more information relevant to this topic, and detailed instructions that should be followed exactly. Discord will likely reply with "This channel is reserved for individuals...", rejecting your data deletion request. Due to this, Discorch provides a response for you to send back to Discord. Discord will also refuse to delete messages you have access to, so you must leave relevant servers and group DMs before sending a data deletion request, and can only rejoin after the messages have been deleted. If you have deleted your account, you cannot delete your messages.

When requesting your data, you only need your message data. It can take up to 30 days to receive your data, once you have it you can use Discorch. According to Discorch:

"Discord acts in malicious compliance with the GDPR. You are not allowed to delete your DMs through their support flow, since you can always regain access to a DM, technically speaking, since you are always a member of the DM channel on their backend."

In order to delete DMs in bulk you must use DiscorchDeleter, which is against Discord's ToS (as it's considered self-botting), it'll automatically delete messages for you. By default the deletion interval tries to comply with Discord's ratelimits, so an account termination is unlikely, though use at your own risk. You may get rate-limited, in which case you need to increase the deletion interval. DiscorchDeleter requires your data package and will also work outside of DMs if you'd like to avoid discord support or remain in relevant servers and group DMs.

DiscorchDeleter requires ViolentMonkey and Vencord (browser version). Discorch provides downloads for all of these, including DiscorchDeleter. ViolentMonkey requires a browser that supports Manifest V2, so consider using Brave or Firefox.

In October 2018, forced arbitration was added to the terms of service. Users could opt out by sending an 'opt-out notice' to arbitration-opt-out@discord.com within 90 days of the ToS going in effect or registering their first account.^[4]

An NBC News investigation in June 2023 uncovered widespread child safety issues on Discord, revealing systemic problems with the platform's user protection measures.

Investigators identified 35 separate cases where adults were criminally charged with "kidnapping, grooming, or sexual assault" involving contacts initiated through Discord. Additionally, 165 criminal prosecutions involving the sharing of child sexual exploitation material (CSAM) on the platform were documented.^[14]

In September 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a comprehensive report examining Discord's data collection practices as part of a broader investigation into the data collection practices of social media platforms.^[15]

The investigation revealed Discord collects extensive user data, including:

• Message content and metadata
• Voice-chat participation
• Server membership and activity
• Device and location information

Particular concern was raised about:

• Collection of data from users under 13
• Handling of minors' user information
• Inadequate age-verification systems

The FTC identified multiple areas where Discord's practices put users at risk:

• Identity theft exposure
• Potential stalking risks
• Discrimination concerns
• Mental health and emotional impact

The FTC concluded that Discord's data practices posed unacceptable risks to users, particularly minors, and recommended significant reforms to the platform's privacy protection measures.^[16]

Announced August 29th, 2025, and put into effect September 29th, 2025, Discord updated and re-iterated their forced arbitration clause but gave users another option to opt-out of forced arbitration until October 29th, 2025, for existing accounts, or 30 days after initial agreement for new accounts.^[17] Users are automatically opted into the forced arbitration clause unless they take specific action to opt out of it within 30 days. Instead, if users chose to delete their accounts, the platform required them to accept the terms in order to access their account, from which they could then delete it, making acceptance of the new terms mandatory.

Main article: Discord / 5CA Data Breach

In October 2025, Discord issued a press release announcing a "Security Incident Involving Third-Party Customer Service [5CA]", in which "the unauthorized party [...] gained access to a small number of government‑ID images (e.g., driver’s license, passport) from users who had appealed an age determination," as well as other personal data provided to support.^[19] The number of ID images accessed was approximately 70,000, and the third-party in question was later named as 5CA.^[19] The hackers involved in the breach have revealed that the data was accessed via Zendesk.^[20]

Main article: Discord's Mandatory Age Verification

In February 2026, Discord issued a press release announcing "enhanced teen safety features rolling out globally", which begins with a "rollout to new and existing users in early March", that may require users "to engage in an age-verification process to change certain settings or access sensitive content".^[21]

On February 9, 2026, a Change.org petition was created to prevent Discord from implementing the age verification globally.

Discord in the UK once utilized^[22][23] Persona as a third-party, specialized vendor for age verification, requiring UK-based users to submit facial scans or ID to access restricted content. A since redacted statement on the support.discord.com web-page under the "How to Complete Age Assurance on Discord" article stated^[24]:

"Important: If you're located in the UK, you may be part of an experiment where your information will be processed by an age-assurance vendor, Persona. The Information you submit will be temporarily stored for up to 7 days, then deleted. For ID document verification, all details are blurred except your photo and date of birth, so only what's truly needed for age verification is used".

After significant backlash from the online community, Discord has changed their statement under the article (as of February 19th, 2026)^[25]:

"Note: Some users in regions outside the UK and Australia may see age-assurance prompts when accessing certain features or settings as part of ongoing experiments."

Discord does not further clarify what the "experiments" entail. Furthermore, the more detailed help-center article does not contain any mentions of the vendor Persona. ^[26]

Persona is an identity verification tool producer, that has received $200 million dollars^[27] from the Founders Fund^[28][29], a venture capital group headed by Peter Thiel^[30]. Peter Thiel is also the co-founder of Palantir Technologies Inc, a global surveillance company.^[29]

Discord has a deletion policy on inactive accounts, in which accounts that are not used for 2 years or more may be scheduled for deletion. Before the deletion of an inactive account, users may receive an email or text message warning that their account is scheduled for deletion. Such policies could adversely affect those who had good reasons to become inactive for a long time, such as hospitalization, prison incarceration, and being in totalitarian countries that have prolonged internet shutdowns. ^[31]

In March 2026, Timothy Meadows, a computer engineer discovered a privacy and security vulnerability that involved Discord's software developer kit (SDK) and integrations with the Arc Raiders game.^[32] This vulnerability affected the users with their Discord account linked with the game, allowing the software to log and store locally Discord private conversations, user credentials and other user information in an unencrypted log file. If the Arc Raiders game crashes, this file could be sent to the game developers. Embark Studios disabled the SDK integration after the incident was announced. ^{[33] [34]} Before the incident was known, when an user linked their Discord account, a pop-up claimed that Arc Raiders "cannot read users' messages". ^[35][36][37]

Since April 2025, users have been reported their accounts have been banned after taking action against child sexual predators instead of banning the predator themselves. When an account is banned for this, the reason given is "hateful conduct policy" The ban grants a 24-hour mute, making users unable to talk or interact with others. This account flag might stay up to four years.^[38] No Text To Speech's video explains this incident with more details on YouTube.

• Visit How to delete Discord account and scroll to "Having Trouble Deleting Your Discord Account?" Find the link titled "Reach out to our support team". Direct link subject to user instance - http://dis.gd/support

• Fill out the "Submit a request" form. (A web search for "Submit a request Discord" may help users find the form. Be sure to answer the question "What can we help you with?" with "Help and Support" from the drop-down.) Please fill out the form using the same email address associated with your Discord account, as this process may need to be restarted if it is not. In the form, under "Type of question," there is an option for "Account deletion request". Proceed to fill out and submit the form with any other relevant information. An email will then be sent with further instructions, including how to proceed with account deletion, which involves responding to the email with "I confirm that I would like to delete the account associated with [user email]." The response must be received from the same email as the one associated with the Discord account.

If you're running a .deb installation of Discord, you can disable forced updates by adding "SKIP_HOST_UPDATE": true to ~/.config/discord/settings.json.^[39]

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