Discord’s new policy will prohibiting harmful medical advice, specifically targeting anti-vaxx groups
Discord stated on Friday that it is revamping its policies and community guidelines to combat health misinformation, off-platform activity, and hate speech. It’s Discord’s first major policy change in nearly two years, and it’s aimed at organizations or individuals who engage in organized violence, promote damaging anti-vaccination content, or harass other Discord users with hate speech.
Discord is clarifying its standards on health misinformation after two years of a pandemic. Users “may not share false or misleading information on Discord that is likely to cause physical or societal harm,” according to new community guidelines that go into effect on March 28th. This includes content that could cause damage to physical infrastructure, injury to others, or content that endangers public health.
Similarly, Discord will penalize players who participate in detrimental activity outside of the platform. Membership in violent organizations, making credible threats of violence against persons, organizations, events, or locations, and belonging to groups that sexualize children in any way are all examples of relevant behavior.
Discord’s moderation is decentralized, which sets it unique from networks like Facebook. It relies on individual servers to moderate themselves and escalate content to business moderation as necessary, rather than screening for content breaches proactively.
Discord is also addressing hate speech by broadening its protected attributes to include caste, gender identity, age, serious illness, and other factors. The terms of service, privacy policy, and community rules all employ plain English rather than legalese, which can be difficult to understand. To make things easier for Discord users in countries where such terms aren’t widely used, terms like NSFW have been replaced with age-restricted.
The majority of these significant changes are the result of how much the world has changed in recent years and how Discord has expanded to appeal to a far larger audience. Discord has been raising funds in an attempt to expand outside gaming, and as a result, the service continues to draw a varied range of communities.
Warren, T. (2022, February 25). Discord’s new policy will ban harmful medical advice, taking aim at anti-vaxx groups. The Verge. Retrieved April 2, 2022, from https://www.theverge.com/2022/2/25/22950432/discord-new-privacy-policy-community-guidelines
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After viewing the blog, I gained so much lessons. It emphasizes there that health must always be our top priority especially in this time of pandemic. I am hoping to see more blogs like this because it really helps a lot especially the public needs to know some information regarding this kind of issues.
Knowing for a fact that Discord markets the younger generation mostly which is worldwide where different ethnicities, beliefs, and cultures interplay, it is only right for them to make a borderline to atleast set a guideline for various disinformation, discrimination, and hate speech that may arise. Goodthing they emphasized the use of plain English since people tend to just oversee guidelines which are full of highfalutin and unfamiliar words.
Thank you for this very informative and comprehensive article. I was able to formulate many valuable insights from this.
Discord is not only for dating and group gatherings yet I agree with this one that we should not spready any harmful and fake medical advices when in fact its not from professionals and research based. This is very informative and eye opening for others that we have differences in our beliefs. Nice keep it up lods.
Indeed a well informing blog. It is good to know that Discord is now prohibiting such action to avoid assaults and harassment online. It is always important that we made sure the safety of every user as we engage virtually. However, as a user we need to be mindful as well that we need to be careful with the people we talked to.
Certainly an up-to-date blog. It’s good to know that discord clarifies standards on health and prohibits misleading information on that is likely to cause physical or societal harm. Well done creators.
Discord is doing a great job of improving its policies by implying penalties among the users who spread hate and disinformation. It is also convenient that they considered using not only plain English as a language material because some people are unable to comprehend English because it is not their native language. However, improving policies without a strong foundation is not enough. People can always create new and anonymous accounts even after receiving punishments. It is possible that they will still continue to disrupt other users because their personal information is not open to the public. I hope they can come up with strict policies that will require users to register their original names and pictures so they will lose the backbone to spread negativity throughout the discord.
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Informative, updated and insightful. The use of profanities and the spreading of misinformation must not be tolerated and therefore must be dealt with. Discords action regarding this matter is very appropriate and kudos to the source for doing such a good job.
Very informative 🙂
interesting blog
I have to say, I really agree with the stance and measures that Discord undertook. We should leave medical advice to the real medical professionals.
Interesting and well-informative blog