What the government asked for
The Advocacia-Geral da União (AGU, Brazil's federal attorney general's office) filed a new petition on Monday (21) with the 14th Federal Civil Court of the Federal District, asking the judiciary to order Discord to adopt concrete measures protecting women, children and teenagers on the platform.
The request follows an earlier ruling by the same court, which had given the company ten days to present a settlement proposal. Discord filed the document; the AGU deemed it insufficient and asked the court to stop waiting for an agreement and start imposing obligations.
"Generic in character"
In the government's assessment, the proposal is "generic in character, with caveats and conditions of various kinds" and fails to match the gravity of the problem with the urgency the case demands.
The objection is as much about form as content: a proposal loaded with conditions is hard to enforce later, because every exception opens room to argue whether the obligation applied in that particular case.
The 500-million-real lawsuit
The petition sits inside the civil public action the AGU brought against the platform, which seeks 500 million reais (about US$92 million) in collective moral damages, along with moderation and age-verification duties.
The case that accelerated the push
Pressure on the company grew after an incident in July in which a teenage girl was induced to take her own life during a live broadcast on the platform. The case led the Autoridade Nacional de Proteção de Dados (ANPD, Brazil's data protection authority) and the federal government to demand changes to how the service operates in Brazil.
Contacted by Agência Brasil, Discord had not responded by the time that report was published.
If you need to talk, Brazil's Centro de Valorização da Vida (CVV) offers free support 24 hours a day at 188 and at cvv.org.br. Elsewhere, the International Association for Suicide Prevention lists local helplines at iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres.
With information from Agência Brasil and Poder360.
