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”.