Florida’s Next Tech Target In Court: Discord

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Florida filed a civil lawsuit against Discord on Thursday, joining other states in scrutinizing the allegedly “lax” child safety protections afforded by the popular social platform.

The state is seeking potentially millions in damages from Discord, claiming the company misled and deceived children and their parents about safety measures on the app, which officials maintain has “become a hotbed for predatory and exploitative activities” targeting kids in Florida. The move is the latest legal action against the tech industry by state Attorney General James Uthmeier, who is using his office to aggressively challenge companies, particularly over their guardrails — or purported lack thereof — for protecting children.

“From account initiation and platform use to content moderation and enforcement, Discord has built a flawed application centered on minimal safety settings, hands-off moderation, and lax rule enforcement,” Uthmeier wrote in the lawsuit filed in Glades County circuit court. “As a result, child predators and other bad actors have found a haven in Discord.”

Discord, with more than 90 million active daily users, has become a notable target for state attorneys general and policymakers, who are growing increasingly critical of what’s purportedly unfolding on the app, which is especially prominent among children. Outside of Florida, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Discord in May after initially probing the company because it was reportedly used by the 23-year-old Utah man accused of fatally shooting conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. Additionally, Democratic Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford sued Discord in May, claiming it places young users “in grave danger” and fails “to adequately explain those dangers to Nevada parents,” while Republican Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin filed suit in June with similar charges.

In Florida’s lawsuit, Uthmeier contends “Discord’s platform design, targeted marketing, and false safety promises have caused and continue to cause significant harm to Florida children.”

The complaint cites several cases of adults allegedly abusing children through the Discord app, such as a 19-year-old man from Highlands County manipulating an 11-year-old girl from Miami-Dade County to exchange sexually explicit images and videos before sexually assaulting and kidnapping her. In another instance, a 29-year-old from Tennessee allegedly groomed, sexually abused and kidnapped a 14-year-old girl from Marion County, coercing her to produce child pornography and cutting part of his online username into her skin, according to the lawsuit.

As such, Uthmeier is going after Discord over alleged violations of the state’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, which he is also using to bring lawsuits against social media companies like TikTok and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram. Uthmeier claims Discord is designing, offering and maintaining a platform accessible to consumers in Florida without requiring age verification or parental consent. All the while, Uthmeier’s suit adds, “children can pretend to be adults and adults can pretend to be children.”

Last month, Discord introduced an age verification system amid legal pressure.

“But its late-breaking changes cannot undo years of past harm. And they are not enough to prevent future harm,” according to Uthmeier’s lawsuit.

Uthmeier began investigating Discord in March, when he subpoenaed the company seeking details surrounding its “marketing to children, enforcing age-verification requirements, content moderation, parental control features, and reporting of exploitative activity.”

“Many of our criminal investigations into internet child predators lead to one place: Discord,” Uthmeier said at the time. “Groomers and predators seem to believe that they can get away with targeting children on Discord — and we are going to find out why. Discord owes us an explanation on the overwhelming use of its platform among predators, and what they are doing to protect children.”