Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that his office
is investigating the messaging platform Discord, following reports that it was
used by the alleged perpetrator of the murder of conservative commentator
Charlie Kirk.
Why is Discord under scrutiny?
Paxton argues that Discord has allowed extremist content,
sexual exploitation, and addiction to flourish, especially among minors, and
wants to determine whether the platform violated state regulations regarding
child protection.
The investigation is being conducted under the state's SCOPE
(Securing Children Online Through Parental Empowerment) Act, passed in 2024,
which imposes obligations on digital services to protect minors from harmful
content.
As part of the process, the attorney general has issued an
expanded Civil Investigative Demand (Civil Investigative Demand) against
Discord, requesting documents and evidence regarding extremism, grooming
(sexual harassment of minors), addiction, and the platform's relationship with
ideologically motivated violence.
Links to the Kirk Case Reported
The alleged perpetrator, Tyler Robinson, reportedly used
Discord to discuss his plan to retrieve a gun from a drop-off location and
communicate with other users hours before turning himself in.
Some messages attributed to him included details such as
leaving the rifle wrapped, observing certain areas, or changing clothes,
suggesting planning.
However, Discord has denied that such actions were planned
or promoted within its platform. It states that, after internal investigations,
it found no evidence that the attack was planned there.
The company did confirm that it closed the account
associated with the suspect for violations of its external behavior policies
regarding violence.