Russia is banning Discord, an app its military uses

“I was obsessed with FF11, and I made something like a prototype of Discord as software that could be used while playing the game.” Discord was also fined by a Moscow court last month for “failing to delete prohibited information.” The ban has drawn criticism from pro-military bloggers who said Russian forces had been using Discord to coordinate units on the battlefield in Ukraine. According to the bloggers, Russian soldiers have been left without an effective alternative. A one-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $99.95 and includes an extra three months for free — 49% off for a limited time. This plan also includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee.

The best VPNs for unblocking sites like Discord are not free, but most do offer free trials or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can bypass geo-restrictions to retain access to your favorite sites without spending anything. This obviously isn’t a long-term solution, but it works well if you’re traveling or temporarily away from home. VPNs can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to secure servers in other locations.

How to access Discord

The twist is that the Russian military relies on Discord to coordinate communications, since the military doesn’t have its own platforms in place to support secure messaging. I went to a coffee morning this weekend and was flashbanged with an ask for my Discord handle. While platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram allow the creation of single-threaded groups, Discord goes one stage further, allowing groups to segment into multiple channels. Several US states have passed legislation to boost the protection of children online, which has also affected Discord. The measures include tougher age verification measures and the protection of personal data​.

Under the DMCA, companies that suspect infringement of their copyright can seek a subpoena from a federal court to get another service provider to give it information on the user suspected of violating its copyright. Turkish prosecutors began an investigation into Discord on October 5 over allegations that some Discord users were blackmailing young children to take nude images of themselves and post them in groups, news agency Anadolu reported. Roskomnadzor had previously fined the San Francisco-based app for failing to remove banned content. Russia is banning chat platform Discord, the Washington Post reports.

Discord allows voice and video calls along with text messaging, and users can share content and chat in private or public virtual communities. Discord was first released in May 2015, initially to allow online gamers to communicate while playing. More than half a billion people have downloaded the app and, according to the platform, it has 150 million regular users. Nexon alleges that Discord members “often use” the platform “to provide pirated versions of video games,” including Nexon’s. Germany and France have raised concerns about Discord’s data collection practices and how it handles user information, especially for younger users.

The porn saga of North Carolina’s lieutenant governor is modern lawfare in a nutshell

Groups espousing controversial political views or spreading hatred and extremist propaganda have been able to flourish on the platform because of Discord’s privacy rules and lax content moderation standards, compared to rivals Facebook, Instagram and X. The platform’s voice and text options are integrated in a way that allows users to drop into conversations without direct calling (like through Skype) and switch easily between texting and voice chatting. NBC News said there were an additional 165 cases where Discord had been allegedly used for so-called sextortion — where children are pressured into sending sexually graphic images of themselves — or sending or receiving child sexual abuse images.

You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. The authorities claimed to have evidence that the platform was being used by bad actors to commit child sexual abuse and obscenity offenses. One such instance includes the glorification of the murder of two women in Istanbul earlier this month. Discord, and other large social media networks, now face increased scrutiny over content moderation practices under the EU’s Digital Services Act, which requires platforms to quickly remove harmful content. Roskomnadzor stated that the ban was enforced to prevent the platform from being used for, among other things, extremist purposes, the sale of drugs, and the posting of illegal information.

Discord says piracy subpoena would violate users’ First Amendment rights

It’s also worth noting that Discord was fined by a Moscow court last month for “failing to delete prohibited information.” The ban is the consequence of Discord “violating Russian law”, and happened after Discord refused to delete flagged items deemed illegal. Roskomnadzor, Russia’s internet regulator, ordered Discord last week to delete around 1,000 channels and pages from its platform. The good news is that it’s possible to regain ChatGPT access to Discord (and other blocked sites) in Russia and Turkey with the help of a VPN. Read on to find out why these countries have banned Discord and how you can use today’s best VPNs to unblock government-restricted content. Russia has banned Discord, with Turkey following suit shortly after, citing that the app violated the law by failing to remove illegal content from its platform and refusing to assist the authorities.

• This helps you sidestep geo-restrictions and government-imposed bans on all kinds of sites, including platforms like Discord, Instagram, and X, independent news channels, and even streaming services like Netflix and BBC iPlayer.
• This obviously isn’t a long-term solution, but it works well if you’re traveling or temporarily away from home.
• Read on to find out why these countries have banned Discord and how you can use today’s best VPNs to unblock government-restricted content.
• Among the technology platforms now banned in Russia are X, formerly Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Krishi covers buying guides and how-to’s related to software, online tools, and tech products here at TechRadar. As a tech fanatic, Krishi also loves writing about the latest happenings in the world of cybersecurity, AI, and software. A VPN also encrypts your web traffic by routing it through an end-to-end encrypted tunnel on one of its own servers and not your ISP’s. This will keep your messages and any data you share over the internet private. Additionally, we recommend connecting to VPN servers in privacy havens such as Switzerland for even better privacy and security from prying eyes.

The platform also raised eyebrows among Turkish regulators after some users, in private groups hosted on Discord, posted messages praising a recent double murder of two 19-year-old women in Istanbul, local media reported. “We are determined to protect our young people and our children… from harmful and criminal publications on social media and the internet,” Tunc wrote on X. Harvey’s history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he’s since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G’raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He’ll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles.

The app joins platforms like Facebook and X, which have also been blocked in the country since the start of its war with Ukraine. I have a feeling that’s because, while the progression from the days of dial-up has certainly made voice-chat simpler, Discord is so straightforward you can set up a server with your eyes closed. Trying to use something else is like trying to pitch someone on a search engine other than Google, or a diehard D&D player on a different tabletop system.

French regulators fined the platform €800,000 ($875,000) in November 2022 over its failures to abide by the European Union’s data protection rules. The Kremlin has regularly targeted Western social media platforms, particularly since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Among the technology platforms now banned in Russia are X, formerly Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Turkish authorities said that Discord refused to share any IP addresses and content with them to allow them to monitor and prevent crimes and illegal activity, and this is why it has been banned. Discord is fighting to keep its users anonymous in a court battle over piracy on the platform, claiming it would violate users’ First Amendment rights to hand over too much of their information.

How to unblock Discord for free

It’s gonna take some doing for very little gain and we’re all already there. Popular platforms such as Facebook, X, and Instagram are also restricted, making it harder for folks in Russia to stay in touch and keep up with the current affairs around the world. By Lauren Feiner, a senior policy reporter at The Verge, covering the intersection of Silicon Valley and Capitol Hill. She spent 5 years covering tech policy at CNBC, writing about antitrust, privacy, and content moderation reform. The platform insists it has strengthened its practices against online harms in recent years, especially those faced by young users.

Discord’s attorney warned Nexon in the letter that its request would infringe on its users’ First Amendment rights to free speech and their decision to be anonymous. “The Requests improperly seek to unmask anonymous speakers and consequently compel disclosure of material protected by the First Amendment,” Discord wrote in the July letter. Discord and Nexon did not immediately provide comments to The Verge.

During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, Discord’s management widened the platform’s focus to include virtually all online communities. Discord was also denounced in 2017 for allowing its platform to be used to promote a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which erupted in violence and left one person dead. Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said the decision was made to “protect” children from online abuse when using Discord.

Russia’s internet regulator reportedly accused the platform of posting extremist content, including child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Turkey followed suit, blocking the app after it refused to share user data with the government. All you need to do is open the VPN app and connect to a server outside Russia or Turkey. A virtual private network (VPN) spoofs your real IP address and fools ISPs into thinking that you’re physically located in the same place VPN server. This helps you sidestep geo-restrictions and government-imposed bans on all kinds of sites, including platforms like Discord, Instagram, and X, independent news channels, and even streaming services like Netflix and BBC iPlayer. Turkey’s Discord ban
Turkey banned Discord after the company failed to hand over requested user data to the government.

• The platform’s voice and text options are integrated in a way that allows users to drop into conversations without direct calling (like through Skype) and switch easily between texting and voice chatting.
• As a tech fanatic, Krishi also loves writing about the latest happenings in the world of cybersecurity, AI, and software.
• Popular platforms such as Facebook, X, and Instagram are also restricted, making it harder for folks in Russia to stay in touch and keep up with the current affairs around the world.
• Trying to use something else is like trying to pitch someone on a search engine other than Google, or a diehard D&D player on a different tabletop system.

This process bypasses geo-restrictions so that you can access Discord from anywhere in the world. There are often sensible arguments for these bans, but sometimes, you’ll simply want to access your favorite site when the time is right, but you won’t be able to because a restriction is in place. Discord has, from time to time, been banned in certain countries. And it’s almost definitely a restricted streamlabs chatbot discord site in a number of schools, workplaces, and locations where visiting Discord is not tolerated. The platform has become a meeting place for those who follow counterculture narratives, including the incel (involuntary celibate) movement, hacking groups and cryptocurrency investors. Its most popular “server,” with 20 million followers, is about the artificial intelligence platform Midjourney.

In the United States, Discord has been investigated by the FBI in criminal cases where the platform was allegedly used for grooming minors and spreading images of child sexual abuse. Moscow’s move was followed a day later by Turkey, whose BTK communications authority blocked the app nationwide after a ruling by a court in Ankara. Russian regulator Roskomnadzor said Discord was “actively used by criminals” and that the platform had failed to comply with an order issued on October 1 demanding the removal of nearly a thousand items of content.

Interestingly, however, the Russian government, by banning Discord, has angered the Russian military that was using the app to coordinate troops on the battlefield in the country’s ongoing conflict against Ukraine. According to reports, the sudden ban on Discord caught the Russian military off guard, and as a result, they were left without proper communications. Basically, any content that criticizes ChatGPT App the Russia-Ukraine war or any Russian officials, supports LGBT activism, or promotes content by the Kremlin’s opposition is considered illegal under Russian law. Discord failed to delete all such content from its platform and was, therefore. But Nexon says Discord’s refusal to comply deprives it of necessary information to go after people it believes are illegally infringing on its IP.