Discord

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Discord

Example of a User's Home Screen - Site Type VoIP communications, instant messaging, video-conferencing, content delivery, and social media Launch Date May 13, 2015 Status Active Product Line Social Networking Service Platform Desktop, Mobile, Browser Website https://discord.com/

Discord is a voice, video, and text communication service used by over a hundred million people to hang out and talk with their friends and communities . The communities are primarily built on virtual groups, called “servers”. A server is a collection of two types of channels: chat rooms and voice calls. A server runs on a theme and attracts users with interests to said themes. Each server can house multiple channels that are designated by hash-tagged keywords. Each channel can have a different purpose or set of permitted users. Users can join several servers from one account and then send direct messages (DMs) to other users within those channels featuring text, voice, photo, or video messages . ​​As of 2022 , the service is now valued at $15 billion and has over 150 million monthly active users with 19 million active servers . Discord also poses serious ethical implications regarding cyberbullying, anonymity, doxxing, and issues revolving around not safe for work (nsfw) content and pornography.

History

Since childhood, founders Jason Citron (CEO) and Stan Vishnevskiy (CTO) both shared a love of video games, cherishing the friendships and connections that formed while playing them. Dedicated to the idea of creating a service that encouraged talking, helped form memories, and recreated the feeling of togetherness all found through gaming, the two founders took it upon themselves to create Discord. The application was brought to life in 2015 with the goal of solving how to communicate with friends around the world while playing games online. Additionally, the platform was created to help make it easier for users to participate in conversation, hopping around text, voice, and video to talk. As of January 2022, the social platform has 150 million monthly active users, 19 million active servers per week, and 4 billion server conversation minutes daily .

Usage

Gamers

When gaming became more connective and interactive with others, gamers realized that . They wanted to talk to their gaming friends even when they weren't in a game, and they wanted to talk about things other than games. Their gaming friends were their real friends. Originally created for the gaming community, Discord has grown into a powerhouse that is at the center of the gaming universe. Users have access to create private servers for just them and their friends, while also being able to explore public servers to find new communities and gaming friends .

Universities

For many students, going to college is about the social aspect of a college community as much as it is about earning an education. As the COVID-19 pandemic began and educational spaces transformed, building community became harder for College Possible students. Although Discord was originally an online gaming platform, during the pandemic its uses have diversified . In 2020, the social platform hit 140 million monthly users, twice as many as those who used it in 2019. With schools remote, people inside, and video game and streaming hugely popular, Discord has become a new place for community, collaboration, and education .

Over 200 colleges and universities are currently on Discord serving as a means for students to connect together, chat, game, and participate in campus events and activities. With server capacity reaching far into the thousands, Discord servers are providing students the opportunity to connect with others and their community on a larger scale. Additionally, the roles and moderation tools that Discord provides allows for the connections of peers in a safe and academically centered space .

Work Environments

Business and work environments need the best virtual collaboration tools to get things done and stay on track, and some industries are beginning to turn to Discord as a legitimate business tool. The platform provides business users access to many of its features for free and the ability to integrate software bots to help fill in any gaps between what Discord offers and what may be offered in a physical office environment. With its ability to sync clear audio between users, this provides business users the ability to collaborate in perfect time with no awkward delays or lag issues during Discord group meetings .

Features

Direct Messaging

Direct messages (DMs) in Discord allow users to send messages, share files, live stream their screen, and call others privately outside of servers. An added feature in Discord direct messages is the ability to create message groups of up to 10 users. This acts similar to a server's text channel, with the ability to initiate a call simultaneously for all the members in a direct message group . Before messages can be sent to friends, users must have them added to their friends list first .

To keep a user’s direct messages clean and to assist in preventing any unwarranted surprises at bay, Discord provides users a few options for additional safety. In settings, under the Privacy & Safety option, users can access the "Safe Direct Messaging" which provides 3 levels of added safety. The first option, “keep me safe” is the safest option. This will have Discord scan any image sent in all direct messages, regardless of whether you've added the user on your friend list, or the user is DMing you just by sharing a mutual server. The second option, “my friends are nice” lets Discord know to scan any images sent in DMs from users that aren't on your friends list, but also to trust your previously-added friends and not worry about any images they send. The third option, “do not scan” completely disables Discord's image scanning process, and leaves users with the full access to messages of all types .

Video Calls & Live Streaming

Video calling and screen sharing were added in October 2017, allowing users to create private video calls with up to 10 users , which was later increased to 50 in March 2020 due to the increased popularity of video calling during the COVID-19 pandemic. Going live and screen sharing allows users to screen share any application window, or their entire screen in a server or voice call. Streamers are also provided the ability to voice chat and interact with others watching their stream, as well as being able to switch their screens during streaming through a “change windows” button that is found in their status bar. Once a user has joined a voice channel and accesses a live stream, they can then change the size and location of the viewing window and adjust the stream’s audio from the volume icon while hovering over the stream .

User Profile

Profiles are customizable to allow users the ability to express themselves in ways that they feel represents them best. Like most other social platforms, users are able to add a profile photo and personalized bio to their accounts. One of the main profile features that users interact with is custom statuses. This allows users the capability of letting others know what they are up to. Statuses can be displayed with emojis and are able to be set to clear automatically after so many hours, or never be cleared at all. Note: Custom status override other status activities that a user may have synced up to their account, this includes activities such as playing a game or listening to Spotify . Users also have the ability to customize and display their availability status to others through the options: Online, Idle, Do Not Disturb (users will not receive any desktop notifications), and Invisible (Users will not appear online, but will have full access to all of Discord) .

Ethical Implications

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying includes sending, posting, or sharing negative, harmful, false, or mean content about someone else. It can include sharing personal or private information about someone else causing embarrassment or humiliation. Some cyberbullying crosses the line into unlawful or criminal behavior. The content an individual shares online – both their personal content as well as any negative, mean, or hurtful content – creates a kind of permanent public record of their views, activities, and behavior. This public record can be thought of as an online reputation, which may be accessible to schools, employers, colleges, clubs, and others who may be researching an individual now or in the future. Cyberbullying can harm the online reputations of everyone involved – not just the person being bullied, but those doing the bullying or participating in it. . Some examples of cyberbullying that are notable on Discord include general harassment, server raids, flaming, and trolling.

Anonymity

Hate Speech

For example, on the night of September 2, 2021, three unknown individuals joined the University of Utah’s Muslim Student Association Discord channel and began using racist language and sharing racist memes and images in an attempt to “troll” the channel and its members. The language included slurs against the Black Community, Jewish Community and Muslim community .

Doxxing

Doxxing refers to gathering an individual’s Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and disclosing or posting it publicly, usually for malicious purposes such as public humiliation, stalking, identity theft, or targeting an individual for harassment. Doxxers may then compile information from multiple public-facing sources to reveal sensitive information about the victim, such as the victim’s home address, family members, photos, workplace, and information about the individual’s habits, hobbies, or interests . Technically, doxxing is not illegal as long as the information is of public record. But, doxxers use the internet to find public information about a target and compile it with the intent of "exposing" someone or just for pure retaliation. But if doxxing leads to death threats or threats of physical violence on the target's self or property, it can be illegal depending on where you live .

Not Safe For Work (NSFW) Content

Adult content on Discord should only be accessible to those over 18 years old, and must be labelled properly to avoid anyone stumbling upon it inadvertently .

See also

• Anonymous Behavior in Virtual Environments
• Anonymous Online Presence and Harassment
• Cyberbullying
• Flaming
• Griefing
• Online Identity
• Social Networking
• Troll

References

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