Brazil orders Discord to suspend livestreams after teen’s death

Brazil has ordered social media app Discord to suspend its livestreaming feature across the country, accusing the platform of failing to protect children and teenagers after a 13-year-old girl died by suicide following a livestream in which authorities say she was encouraged to harm herself.

Brazil’s National Data Protection Authority (ANPD) on Wednesday gave Discord three business days to suspend its “Go Live” feature and other similar video-sharing tools. Discord itself will not be blocked, but those features won’t be available to users until the company can show it has put adequate safeguards in place for minors, said the agency in a statement.

The regulator said it had found “robust evidence” that Discord failed to take reasonable steps to prevent minors from being exposed to content promoting violence, self-harm and suicide.

The order follows the death of a 13-year-old girl in central-western Brazil last month. Authorities say that during a 45-minute Discord livestream, she was encouraged to harm herself and ultimately take her own life.

Five teenagers have been arrested in connection with her death. Police said the investigation also led them to another girl “who was about to commit suicide live on the internet”, but that the police operation saved her.

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

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

He said the 13-year-old had first been encouraged to kill an animal and, when she could not do it, was then encouraged 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,” Barreto said. “Girls are being enslaved online and coerced into committing truly barbaric acts.”

Calls for Discord to be removed

Barreto said a 14-year-old boy arrested in connection with the case was “smiling as if he had just beaten a level in a game.” He added that the parents of most of the teenagers detained had been taken completely by surprise.

Following the girl’s death, Rosangela da Silva, the wife of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, called for Discord to be shut down and urged the judiciary to “remove this horrible network from the Internet”. Discord says it has more than 90 million daily active users worldwide.

But the ANPD said its concerns go beyond this case. The agency said Discord’s livestreams have repeatedly been used in connection with serious crimes and have put the physical and mental safety of minors at risk.

It also pointed to the way Discord’s livestreaming system works. According to the regulator, Discord cannot access the content of video streams while they are happening, meaning it cannot automatically analyse the video and detect violations in real time. Instead, the ANPD said, the platform relies on automated systems the agency described as flawed, as well as reports from users themselves.

Discord said in a statement to AFP before Wednesday’s decision that it was “cooperating with authorities in the investigation into this serious case”.

Brazil’s move against Discord is the latest example of the country taking a tougher approach to tech giants, particularly over their responsibility for what happens on their platforms.

In 2024, Brazil blocked X for 40 days, until the company complied with Supreme Court orders to remove accounts accused of spreading disinformation. The crackdown has angered United States President Donald Trump, who has accused Brazil of targeting American social media companies and cited that as one of the reasons for imposing tariffs on Brazilian goods.