Discord Says 70,000 IDs Exposed in Breach; Texas AG Deepens Investigation
Around 70,000 global users of Discord may have had their government ID photos exposed in the Sept. 20 data breach, said Discord in an update Wednesday. The company notified stakeholders of the breach Oct. 3. Meanwhile, Texas said Thursday it's expanding a probe of Discord.
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The company stressed “this was not a breach of Discord, but rather a [breach of a] third-party service we use to support our customer service efforts,” including reviewing age-related appeals, which was why the government ID photos were accessed.
The company began conducting age verification to comply with laws like the Online Safety Act in Australia and the UK. For instances where users were incorrectly locked out of the platform, Discord has a page explaining how to verify age, instructing users to photograph themselves with a photo ID and their Discord username.
Morgan Reed, president of ACT | The App Association, and others have blamed age verification mandates for the breach (see 2510060063).
On Thursday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) announced the expansion of his Securing Children Online Through Parental Empowerment (SCOPE) Act investigation into Discord. Paxton said the reported assassin of Charlie Kirk used the platform, and that Discord is "addictive and has exposed minors to sexual exploitation and extremist content."
Paxton had previously investigated the platform along with more than 200 other companies under the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act for concerns over data privacy practices (see 2507210028).
"Discord has chosen to allow extremist content, sexual exploitation, and addiction to flourish on its platform," said Paxton in a press release. "It has a legal obligation to prevent minors from being exposed to these evils, but instead its actions have contributed to the growing wave of nihilistic violence all across our nation.”