JAKARTA - Discord does not want its chat platform to become a hotbed of hate speech and misinformation. Especially regarding the COVID-19 vaccine. They also overhauled their community policies and guidelines.
In nearly two years, this change is the first major policy update for Discord. These changes are designed to target groups or individuals participating in organized violence. It may also spread harmful anti-vaccination material, or harass other Discord users with hate speech.
That rule applies to a lot of information, but the discussion of COVID-19 is a prime example given. This chat service does not want to be a source of anti-vaccination content or advice that is not accepted by the medical community. For example the use of home remedies that are not proven.
"(Discord will not allow individuals) to post, promote or organize communities around false or misleading health information that is likely to result in harm," said Discord senior platform policy specialist Alex Anderson.
This change is clearly aimed at anti-vaxxers who upload and promote highly misleading health information. But that doesn't mean all anti-vaxxers will be removed from the platform.
"If someone posts on Discord like drinking four ounces of bleach and your body will be free from the coronavirus, that's actionable. The medical consensus doesn't support it as a treatment for COVID-19. There's even a high probability of harm to anyone who follows that advice." said the chief legal officer at Discord, Clint Smith.
However, according to The Verge, Saturday, February 26, Smith said if someone posted about holding, "a crystal in your chest for 5 minutes and your lung capacity will increase," in the context of a pandemic, that's not something Discord would be against.
"Crystals and the healing power of crystals are not supported by medical consensus. However, there is also a very low risk of harm to our users, so statements about crystals, we will not act," explained Smith.
Discord also lists topics as a warning not to make false or misleading claims about vaccines, safety, side effects, or efficacy.
Material, development, or approval of a vaccine, an unapproved alternative treatment for a disease. These include claims promoting harmful forms of self-medication, as well as claims advocating refusal or alternatives to vaccines.
In addition, Discord also prohibits the presence or prevalence of a disease, the transmission or symptoms of a disease, guidance, advice or health mandates. This includes false claims about precautions and actions that could hinder the resolution of public health emergencies. This includes availability or eligibility for health services.
Content implying health conspiracies by evil forces is also prohibited. This includes claims that could cause social unrest or trigger the destruction of critical infrastructure.
Further, Discord is also highlighting public servers with a new tag in the client soon, just to make the definition between private and public servers a little clearer. Discord is clearly trying to put a line between platform management and privacy as well.
"You can imagine that we'd be doing a lot more machine learning from a security perspective on conversations that happen in large public communities, but we're not going to do that on private DMs and private servers," said Smith.
"If there is a high expectation of privacy within a small group DM, we intend to respect that expectation of privacy," he added.
Discord also targets hate speech by extending protected attributes to caste, gender identity, age, serious illness, and more. The terms of service, privacy policy and community guidelines also include English which is more regular than the official language, which is often difficult for users to understand.
Terms such as Not Suitable/Safe For Work (NSFW) have also been removed in favor of age restrictions, to make it easier for Discord users in countries where they are not widely used.
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