Less than three weeks after Brazil’s national data regulator ordered the US-based messaging platform Discord to restrict live broadcasting functions over systemic failures to protect minors, the company has confirmed it has fully complied with the government mandate, cutting off Brazilian users’ access to livestreaming, screen sharing and video calling as of Monday. The regulatory action was triggered by the horrific suicide of a 13-year-old girl in a small central-western Brazilian town, where a group of users allegedly goaded the teen into ending her own life during a live broadcast.
According to Brazilian law enforcement details, the coordinated abuse unfolded over 45 minutes: the group first pressured the girl to harm an animal, and when she refused to complete the act, they turned their coercion toward convincing her to die by suicide. In the aftermath of her death, Brazilian authorities have arrested six people linked to the incident—five teenagers, including one just 14 years old, and one adult. A senior law enforcement official described the incident as a “real-life horror show”, laying bare the severe dangers of unmoderated harmful content on social and messaging platforms.
Brazil’s National Data Protection Agency (ANPD) issued the suspension order on August 12, arguing that Discord had repeatedly failed to implement adequate safeguards to prevent minors from being targeted with violence, harassment, and incitement to self-harm and suicide on its platform. The regulator gave the company until Monday night to implement the restrictions, and Discord co-founder Stanislav Vishnevskiy confirmed compliance in an official blog post. “We’re complying with the order and working with the ANPD in good faith, which means that screen sharing and video calls will be unavailable for Brazilian users starting now,” Vishnevskiy wrote.
In his statement, Vishnevskiy pushed back on the claim that Discord was solely responsible for the tragedy, noting that the “coordinated sadistic harm campaign…was carried out across multiple platforms.” He added that the company has already removed the private invitation-only group at the center of the case and is actively working to reverse the restrictions as quickly as possible while updating platform safety measures for teen users. “We are working hard to restore access to these important features as quickly as possible,” he wrote, adding that the company is committed “to make Discord safer for teens.” Brazilian users will retain access to core platform functions including direct messaging and audio calls while the suspension is in place.
The incident has reignited fierce public and political debate over online platform regulation in Brazil, where authorities have ramped up efforts to protect children and crack down on harmful digital content in recent months. Rosangela da Silva, wife of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, called for a full permanent shutdown of the platform, urging “the judiciary to remove this horrible network from the Internet.” Meanwhile, many Brazilian users have expressed anger over the broad suspension of services, framing the action as an overreach by regulators. “Here in Brazil they allow mobile phones in prisons. This Discord case is a big joke,” one user wrote on social media in response to the restriction.
Prior to this incident, Brazil had already passed new regulations requiring digital platforms to link the accounts of all users under 16 to parental accounts and implement mandatory age verification to protect minors online. The country’s Supreme Court has also led high-profile efforts to crack down on disinformation and harmful content, a campaign that has drawn fierce criticism from right-wing groups both in Brazil and abroad. Discord, which counts more than 150 million active monthly users and over 90 million active daily users globally, has previously said it was disappointed by ANPD’s order and rejects the regulator’s characterization of its platform’s safety record.