Brazil suspends Discord live streams after teen suicide

SAO PAULO – Brazil’s data protection agency on Aug 12 ordered Discord to suspend live streams, accusing the messaging platform of failing to protect children and adolescents after a teen girl was allegedly incited to commit suicide during a broadcast.

In a case described by one police officer as a “real-life horror show”, a 13-year-old girl in a small city in the centre-west of Brazil was incited during a 45-minute July live stream on Discord to self-harm and eventually kill herself.

Five teenagers have been arrested in connection to the death and a police operation saved “another girl who was about to commit suicide live on the internet”, a police statement said.

“Live streams have been repeatedly used to facilitate violence, harassment, and the incitement of self-harm and suicide,” said the ANPD data protection agency, which gave Discord three days to comply with the suspension.

The ANPD cited “robust evidence that the company failed to adopt reasonable measures” to protect children and teenagers from such content.

In a statement sent to AFP, Discord said it was “disappointed” but was “carefully analysing” the ANPD directive. It rejected the agency’s “characterisation” of the platform.

Discord said it had investigated and removed the invite-only group involved in the case and continued to cooperate with law enforcement.

‘Truly outrageous acts’

Brazil has in recent months sought to boost protections for children online, obliging platforms to link the accounts of users under 16 years old to their parents’ accounts, and verify user age.

Alessandro Barreto, coordinator of the Justice Ministry’s Ciberlab intelligence unit, slammed a “terrible failure in moderation” by Discord.

“We witnessed truly outrageous acts being broadcast online,” he said.

He said the girl had been incited to kill an animal but “she couldn’t do it” and was then incited to kill herself, “all of it broadcast live”.

“We used to see adults grooming minors. Now, what do we see? Minors grooming other minors to commit barbaric acts. It’s called digital slavery. Girls are being enslaved online and coerced into committing truly barbaric acts.”

Barreto said one of those arrested, a 14-year-old boy, was “smiling as if he had just beaten a level in a game”.

“The parents of most of the detained adolescents were completely taken by surprise.”

Following the recent death, Rosangela da Silva, wife of left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, called for the US-based Discord to be shut down and urged “the judiciary to remove this horrible network from the internet”.

Discord claims more than 90 million active daily users worldwide.

Brazilian users expressed frustration at the measure.

In a community dedicated to the right-wing Missao party, user @Deuts said the ANPD measure “stems more from paranoia within the PT’s feminist and boomer circles”, referring to the ruling Workers’ Party.

“It’s a very delicate issue. I understand the outrage, but I was a kid on the internet once, too,” said @Padeli in the “Brazil” community.

“I know parents are the ones who should regulate that. But there’s no way to absolve billion-dollar companies of responsibility, either. I honestly can’t think of a viable solution myself.” AFP