I mean, yes, but just because it's the de facto chat program among gamers. Discord itself, while it may have some...wacky advertising...is actually a relatively left-leaning organization. They shut down a notable number of alt-right servers last year:
https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/28/17062554/discord-alt-right-neo-nazi-white-supremacy-atomwaffen
Jason Citron is a good dude.
I'm not convinced that Discord is a left-leaning organisation. They banned the servers
after Charlottesville btw, when Discord got a lot of criticism for users organising the Unite The Right rally through their service. Discord was decidedly more lenient on hate speech as long as it wasn't "illegal" and they don't monitor messages like other public-facing companies but after violent movements like Charlottesville, they've finally realised you can't be neutral with hate movements.
For months, Discord's executives and board members debated what to do about the alt-right's presence on its platform. Some favored stricter controls and banning hateful speech entirely. Others took the view that since these rooms were private, Discord's responsibility extended only as far as removing illegal content when it was flagged to them. Discord's
community guidelines prohibit "sharing content that is directly threatening someone's physical or financial state," but the company also takes pains to reassure users that their messages will stay private, saying that "we do not actively monitor and aren't responsible for any activity or content that is posted."
Josh Elman, a Discord board member and investor with Greylock Partners, told me before the Charlottesville rally that Discord was analogous to a chat app like Skype or iMessage, and said that it had fewer responsibilities to patrol for hateful content than a public-facing social network.
"It's basically a private email group," he said.
Reached after Discord's decision to ban alt-right groups, Mr. Elman said, "I believe every communication channel — public or private — has a responsibility to investigate and take action on any reports of misuse including harassment, inciting violence or hate, and other abuse."
Discord wouldn't say how many groups it banned in total, but users told me that dozens of alt-right-affiliated servers seemed to have vanished, or closed themselves to new members. The company
said on Twitter that it would not "actively search through messages" for evidence of abuse in the future, but would respond to reports of content that violated its terms of service.
Some white nationalists see Discord's actions as part of a greater "no-platform" movement, in which tech companies systematically take away the digital tools that activists use to generate attention and organize their activities. In response to being kicked off services like PayPal and Patreon, a crowdfunding site, several far-right groups have begun creating alternative platforms, where extreme views will be tolerated.
One moderator of an alt-right Discord server that was banned on Monday, Nathan Gate, who goes by the username TheBigKK, told me that Discord users were "leaving in droves" in search of a more hospitable platform.
"Discord started out as a great service but unfortunately it looks as though we will have to move," he said.
Another right-wing Discord moderator, who goes by Based, said that his server, a large pro-Trump group called "Centipede Central" that is still active, would have to be more careful to police its users going forward.
"We're a little on pins and needles," he said, "because Discord has shown they're willing to nuke servers."
Moderation on the internet is an endless cat-and-mouse game, and it's a near-certainty that without Discord as a safe haven, white nationalists will organize themselves somewhere else. Just hours after Discord shut down their servers, several alt-right users were already attempting to form new rooms, and others were suggesting alternative chat apps that might be friendlier to their views.
"The pathetic nerd cucks at Discord have caved and joined the war against free speech," said
a post on AltRight.com, using one of the movement's favorite slurs. "But we will simply adapt."
