On Saturday, May 14, 2022, a white gunman targeted a predominantly Black community in Buffalo, New York and carried out a mass shooting in a supermarket. We were devastated to learn the suspect had written of his intentions in his private Discord server.
We extend our deepest sympathy to the victims and families of the shooting, and the communities to which they belong. The massacre was a hate crime and a stark display of the grave dangers of white supremacy. We denounce white supremacy and actions that stem from it in the strongest possible terms.
Immediately upon learning of the attack, we began cooperating with law enforcement regarding the suspect’s activity on Discord. While there are limitations to what we can share due to an ongoing investigation, below is what we can confirm at this time:
These are the actions we have taken so far:
Safety is a vital priority for our company and 15% of all Discord employees work in this area. We use a mix of proactive and reactive measures which include automated search tools, empowering community moderators to uphold our policies, and also providing reporting mechanisms for users and community moderators to surface violations for us to action. The Safety team investigates and takes prompt action when we receive a report about illegal activity or policy violations.
We understand hateful ideologies and proponents of organized violence will persist online and offline, and we acknowledge that we must do more to remove hate and violent extremism from Discord. We created Discord to be a place for people to find belonging, and hate and violence are in direct opposition to our mission. We take our commitment to these principles seriously and will continue to invest in and deploy resources.
Combating hate, violence, and extremism is the responsibility of all of us, online platforms included, and our work here never stops.