Officials warned warnings of extremists to recruit the United States
Federal and state law enforcement agencies have warned earlier this year that young people were at risk of extremism in the chat platform, according to government documents obtained by NBC News.
An intelligence consequences of the Ministry of Internal Security and the Terrorist Analysis Center at the state level in Ohio (STACC) explains to distribute it to the police specifically as a platform that the American youth offer to extremist materials from foreign terrorist organizations. Both documents are not classified, but they are “only official use”. It was obtained by the property of the people, a non -profit organization that is in support of healing that seeks and publishing government documents through the requests of the Freedom of Information Law, and sharing them with NBC News.
It is not clear how widely published documents, but law enforcement centers such as Stacc routinely share warnings and analysis with other police agencies.
Reports, which depend on academic studies and law enforcement data, provide an insight into how officials understand the risks of extremism online. The FBI declined to comment and the Ministry of Internal Security (DHS) did not respond to the suspension request. Discord did not respond to a request for comment on documents.
Discord, which was launched in 2015 as a platform for the players, is very popular among young people – a 2023 Pew Study I found that a third of adolescent boys in the United States used it. Discord has previously criticized moderation practices. The platform allows the creation of private chat groups on almost any topic, and has long faced criticism about the indignation. Participant founder and former CEO of Discord Jason Citron He witnessed the Judicial Committee of the Senate In January 2024, Discord uses a mixture of pre -emptive and interactive tools to impose service conditions and community guidelines.
“Specific discussions or ambitious conspiracy tend to occur in the dispute, as the average age of the members – when it was determined – 15, according to academic reports,” said one of the DHS note from the Intelligence and Analysis Office, on January 21.
In 2021, the Institute of Strategic Dialogue, a research center in London, 24 servers are found in English It is associated with the activity of the extreme right. He decided that the average age of the members was 15 and that they sometimes discussed extremist right -wing terrorist terrorist groups such as the Nazi Nazi section.
It is claimed that the suspects in many prominent group shooting events in recent years have used Discord to announce their actions or circulation in violent or nihilistic content there. In 2022, the shooter in Buffalo, New York, has since admitted that he was guilty of the many related charges 10 People seem to have posted a list of tasks to shoot on the platform. After a few months, the man Who ultimately acknowledged death It seems that seven in Hayland Park, Illinois, shared the violent memes there.
In 2024, the shooter at the Iowa State School warned two people before he died of a self -shot wound that he was “preparing”.
A second document, on April 30, produced by DHS and OHIO’s Scacc, focuses on attempts by foreign terrorist organizations to the extremism of the palace via the Internet. Stacc describes itself as the primary fusion center in Ohio, or the law enforcement intelligence participation center. He did not respond to a request for comment.
Since August 2023, Stacc said that the United States has disrupted three conspiracies in the country, and according to what was reported, the events participated in the terrorist group’s terrorist messages “in the online environments, including the chatting of the dispute and game platforms.”
April memo found that domestic violence “create and spread violent content on youth platforms”, with some minors specifically invited violence before they became legal adults.
The second document said that the Western countries disrupted “more than 20 pieces driven by events” between January and November 2024.
The documents, primarily dealing with the extremism of young people by foreign terrorist groups, say that American youth were exposed to ISIS content via the Internet in spaces designed for minors. One of the notes says: “Perhaps teenagers have become increasingly vulnerable to such messages due to the transformations after birth in online behavior, social isolation, and high mental health issues,” says one of the notes.
Discord has gained increasing attention in recent weeks after the authorities said that the alleged Charlie Kerk killer has used the chat app to communicate with friends in the wake of the killing. No law enforcement official suggested that the suspect coordinated the attack with anyone else.
Discord confirmed, in a statement last week, that the suspect had an account on his platform, but he said that “he found no evidence that the suspect had planned this incident or promoted violence in the dispute.” Last week, the FBI director Cash Patel said that the agency was looking at more than 20 people who participated in a special disagreement channel with the suspect.
Discord does not encrypt its own channels, which means that the company has a technical access to user conversations and can convert it to the law app if a judicial order or a judicial order is submitted.
However, he was repeatedly accused of moderation. The company was also the subject of a continuous lawsuit claiming that it did not do enough to stop predators, and it was referred to as a platform for the aggressors in other children’s exploitation. Discord said he does not comment on legal issues and that he has increased safety practices.
dispute The latest transparency report He said that the company had disrupted 36,966 accounts in the first half of 2024 to enhance violent, graphic or extremism content. The report said that the United States government asked it to obtain information about the accounts of users or servers 3,782 times in that period.