The deadline for the Discord platform to deactivate the live broadcast functionality in Brazil ends this Monday (17). The National Data Protection Agency (ANPD) determined that the service should no longer be working on Tuesday (18) based on ECA Digital.
Marie Santini, director of the Internet and Social Network Studies Laboratory at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (NetLab UFRJ), considers the suspension of lives to be “correct”.
The agency gave Discord a deadline of three business days to take action. The decision to suspend lives and other equivalent video sharing resources was taken last Wednesday (12) as a preventive measure.
Maria Mello, from Instituto Alana, also assesses that the decision was “welcome” and “important” for other platforms to also adopt protective measures.
"Without a shadow of a doubt, this is a very important step for us to set a precedent for other platforms to adapt. So I think it is an important example of the supervisory body's ability to do its role", he stated.
However, according to the researcher, it will only be possible to assess whether the measure is sufficient after Discord's reaction, considering whether the platform will comply with the determinations and keep transmissions suspended until effective security mechanisms are created.
Discord is a platform where users chat through text, voice and video messages. Known mainly among gamers, it also allows live broadcasts, in which users follow, participate and make comments.
Effective security
The debate about safety in the digital environment has gained momentum in recent weeks after First Lady Janja da Silva said that Discord should be taken offline “immediately”, referring to a teenager who took her own life during group broadcasts on the platform.
Discord classified the ANPD's decision as “premature” and stated that the characterization made by the agency “does not reflect the platform we have built nor the investments we have made in user safety”.
The company, however, admitted that its protection system failed in the case of the 13-year-old girl and it took around two hours to bring down the transmission.
According to Discord, the first communication of imminent risk of death or serious bodily harm occurred at 3:50 am, and the server was taken offline at 4:15 am.
Cases like this, according to Maria Mello, happen through a grooming process that doesn't just start on platforms like Discord.
"It starts with criminals coming together with teenagers on other social networks and taking these teenagers to these types of rooms that are closed and where they carry out these lives. And then, without content moderation, you cannot identify these crimes being committed", he states.
According to Mello, measuring age is one of the first steps towards effective protection and must take place from the moment the user enters the platforms.
She defends the use of artificial intelligence to identify “cases of exploitation, grooming and coercion”, with quick responses to high-risk situations.
For Marie Santini, director of NetLab, in addition to the existence of rules, platforms must be transparent and have monitoring mechanisms. The researcher also argues that sanctions are capable of affecting the functioning of companies.
“There is no point in issuing a fine, a small sanction, because they include this in the business model, in the cost spreadsheet... It has to be something that really goes to the heart of the business model”, he states.
The ban and request for revocation
The ban will be maintained until the platform proves the adoption of efficient measures to protect minors. The action took place after the inspection process initiated by the ANPD on Friday (7), which found flaws in the protection of children and adolescents in the platform's digital environment.
According to the agency, Discord has been used repeatedly as an environment for committing violations against minors, and lives have been used in practices of violence, harassment, induction of self-mutilation and suicide.
Before the suspension, Discord had presented a proposal with measures to reinforce the protection of users, especially children and adolescents.
The document was delivered to the Attorney General's Office (AGU) on Monday (10), after meetings between representatives of the company, the Ministry of Justice and Public Security (MJSP), AGU and ANPD.
This Friday (14), the platform sent the National Data Protection Agency (ANPD) the clarifications requested by the agency after the decision to suspend transmissions.
In the document, the application states that it continually works to ensure that the digital environment is safe and healthy, rejecting any practice of violence, self-mutilation or incitement to harmful acts.
Furthermore, it sent a letter asking the ANPD to revoke the decision to suspend the tool. In the request for reconsideration, the company states that it is unable to meet the deadline of three business days to suspend live broadcasts.
ECA Digital
The decision that suspended Discord lives was based on the Digital Child and Adolescent Statute (ECA).
According to the ANPD, the platform had failed to comply with rules set out in the law related to the protection of children and adolescents in the virtual environment.
In force since March 17th of this year, the ECA Digital works as an extension of the Child and Adolescent Statute (ECA) for the online environment. The law establishes rules to protect children and adolescents and makes technology platforms and companies responsible for adopting security measures.
The law makes it clear that ECA Digital goes beyond platforms created just for minors. It also reaches digital services that are likely to be accessed by this audience.
To protect children and adolescents, ECA Digital requires that platforms:
adopt measures to prevent violence, sexual abuse, harassment, self-harm, suicide, drugs, gambling, pornography and other risks;
adapt content to the age group, prevent access to illegal or inappropriate materials and use reliable age verification mechanisms;
protect the personal data of children and adolescents and avoid using this information in a way that violates their rights;
offer parental supervision tools and adopt measures to prevent compulsive use of platforms;
prohibit the profiling of minors for commercial advertising, allow supervision and auditing and, in the case of large platforms, present periodic reports.
Failure to comply with the rules set out in ECA Digital may result in sanctions.
