The U.S. document leak left the question of what Discord even is, and what it means for the United States and the Ukrainian war.
Discord made its way into the news cycle after being the main source of national documents leaked about the United States’ involvement in the Ukrainian war.
Leaked Pentagon documents circulated on Discord in early March, depicting photographs of printed briefing reports that are specifically marked for U.S. eyes only. They detail secret U.S. and NATO plans for supplementing the Ukrainian military, which is described to be in a much worse state than originally thought to be by the public.
“I read an article about it at 4 in the morning last night about how the leak was O.G. on Discord,” said Ken, a 67-year-old who was sitting in Cooper Square. “Apparently, the employee in a secure facility was giving transcripts or photographs onto Discord for his fellow peoples. I had no idea what Discord was.”
Discord is a social media platform popular for gamers, split into servers that can act as private group chats or public discussions about different topics.
Discord searches increased by 190% after the documents were released, according to Google Trends. Discord is less mainstream than other social media sites like TikTok and Instagram, but this is not its first scandal. White nationalists organized their “Unite the Right” rally in 2017 on the servers, and the Buffalo shooter last year posted his plans and racist messages on the platform. Typically, it’s used by teenage boys with a love for video games.
“I heard about Discord when a guy I was talking to asked me to download it so we could talk a few years ago,” said Evan, a freshman at Cooper Union. “That’s insane. I had no idea they were leaked on Discord.”
Evan’s reference to a ‘gamer boy’ is something that’s become a running joke on social media. Their friend also mentioned being asked by a boy to download the app, and she laughed at Evan for “falling for a gamer boy.” ‘#discord gamer boy’ has 18.8 billion views on TikTok. Many of the videos make fun of the stereotype and the platform itself.
“I don’t know what [Discord] is,” Derek, 38, said. “I think America should be involved in the war though. It’s important. Get rid of that Putin.”
Discord executives said they are cooperating with the authorities. Around 15% of their 900-person workforce is dedicated to safety teams. The documents are official, but some have been altered, or contain outdated information.
“In regard to the apparent breach of classified material, we are cooperating with law enforcement,” a company spokeswoman told the New York Times. “As this remains an active investigation, we cannot provide further comment at this time.”