Texas AG Ken Paxton sues Discord for exposing children to predators

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on Friday that he has sued the messaging platform Discord for allegedly allowing "child predators to groom and exploit kids while deceiving consumers, parents, and the public about the safety of its platform."

"Discord has allowed and invited all kinds of nihilistic violence and evil. My office is taking action to protect our nation’s precious children from predators," Paxton said in a statement. "We live in a time where the dangers children face online have never been greater, and every parent in Texas deserves to know their child is protected."

The lawsuit accuses Discord of making "specific design choices" that "make it easy for bad actors to locate vulnerable users, build trust quickly, and operate out of the public view." It states that Discord combines "persistent pseudonymous identity, real-time voice and video, private group channels, direct messaging, and a community invitation system," the convergence of which "creates a uniquely efficient environment for bad actors."

"It is not accidental. It is a product architecture that Discord chose and has refused to change despite escalating notice from federal prosecutors, the United States Senate, the Federal Trade Commission and the attorneys general of multiple states, including Texas."

"The consequences are documented in federal courtrooms across the country. Since platform’s launch in 2015, the National Investigative Unit analyzed thousands of federal court records and found 60% of cases identified are criminal investigations or actions involving Discord. Nearly half of these cases involved child exploitation," the suit states.

Discord had promised, according to the lawsuit, that safety is "at the core of everything we do," "built into every aspect of our product and policies," and "fully integrated into our design process," and that there was a "zero-tolerance policy" for those who endanger or sexualize children.

"Those promises were false. Discord chose to make safety opt-in rather than default. It chose to leave private servers invisible. It chose to staff its most critical safety function with unpaid volunteers. It chose to expire violations after 90 days. It chose to bury the block button. Discord chose profits and growth over the safety of children."

The lawsuit accuses Discord of violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act for "Engaging in false, misleading, or deceptive acts or practices in the conduct of any trade or commerce," "unconscionable action or course of action," and "Failing to disclose information concerning goods or services which was known at the time of the transaction if such failure to disclose such information was intended to induce the consumer into a transaction into which the consumer would not have entered had the information been disclosed."

The lawsuit says that Discord has "no reliable mechanism" to enforce its ban on children under the age of 13, and to ensure people who create accounts are the age they claim to be. It also says that the platform "designs safety as an 'opt-in' feature, placing the burden on the less technically sophisticated users rather than the platform. Safety tools exist but are not surfaced, explained, or defaulted towards maximum safety."