Brazil's Office of the Attorney General (AGU), the legal body that represents the federal government, filed a public civil action against Discord on Tuesday (25), seeking R$ 500 million in collective moral damages and court orders requiring the platform to adopt measures to protect children, teenagers, women and animals. According to G1, the lawsuit cites crimes committed by users on the service, failures to remove harmful content and the absence of an agreement to bring the social network in line with Brazilian law.

The case that triggered the suit was the death of a 13-year-old girl who took her own life during a livestream in a Discord group in July, according to CNN Brasil. A report from the Ministry of Justice and Public Security states that the livestream began around 2:20 a.m., that the São Paulo Civil Police alerted the company at 3:50 a.m. and that the group was only taken down at 4:15 a.m. The people under investigation over the episode were only banned at 3:20 p.m. the following day. After the case, first lady Janja da Silva argued the platform should be taken offline "immediately". Brazil's data protection authority (ANPD) ordered the suspension of Discord livestreams in the country, but the AGU action does not seek to ban the service.

Before going to court, the AGU spent two weeks negotiating a conduct adjustment agreement, known in Brazil as a TAC, under which the company would voluntarily take on obligations. "The company initially showed interest in assuming significant commitments to the Brazilian state, but unfortunately refused to sign the agreement at the last moment. We had no other option but to file a public civil action", said Attorney General Jorge Messias. Union Prosecutor General Clarice Costa Calixto said both parties signed a confidentiality agreement and she cannot detail why the talks collapsed. "Our required standard of child and adolescent safety was, regrettably, not accepted by the company", she said. According to her, the amount sought reflects the gravity and number of infractions attributed to Discord and the platform's revenue, which the AGU estimates at around R$ 4 billion per year.

For Victor Fernandes, the National Secretary for Digital Rights at the Ministry of Justice, the slow response in the teenager's case was not an isolated episode. A survey by Ciberlab, the ministry's intelligence center, recorded more than 115 reports between 2025 and 2026 involving incitement to suicide, self-harm, animal abuse and animal sacrifice on Discord. In São Paulo, the Civil Police's digital observation unit counted an average of five complaints per day linked to incitement to suicide, self-harm, rape and other crimes against minors, and more than 385 cases of animal abuse and sacrifice on the platform in 2026. "Platforms must adopt proactive measures to detect and remove this content. None of that was observed in this case", Fernandes said, according to G1.

The action followed Operation Livia, a Ministry of Justice investigation into criminal networks that used digital platforms such as Discord to promote violence against women and girls, according to CNN Brasil. Justice and Public Security Minister Wellington César Lima e Silva called the lawsuit "a state response" to ensure that "any platform, national or foreign, does not neglect the limits imposed by law".

What the lawsuit demands

Besides the damages, which would go to a federal fund for diffuse rights, the AGU asks for a daily fine of R$ 500,000 if a court decision is not complied with, and wants to compel Discord to adopt, among other measures, according to CNN Brasil:

• a protocol to detect and interrupt livestreams with illegal content;
• a protocol to notify authorities of signs of sextortion;
• mechanisms to detect, assess and moderate content involving animal abuse;
• stronger age verification and mandatory linking of accounts of users up to 16 years old to their legal guardians;
• a headquarters and legal representative in Brazil, plus a permanent reporting channel in Portuguese.

In a statement, Discord called the action "disproportionate" and said it "does not accurately reflect the approach" of the company regarding safety and compliance with Brazilian law. The platform says it presented the AGU "a detailed proposal" with technical changes and financial investment in online safety in the country, and claims it deactivated, before the teenager's death, the private server where individuals under investigation allegedly encouraged self-harm. "Any suggestion that we are not cooperating is incorrect", the statement says, also pointing to a lack of coordinated action among the federal agencies involved in the talks.

With the filing, the case now moves to federal court, where Discord is expected to be served and present its defense. No date has been set for the next procedural steps.