After 620m users had their messages scraped and sold, Discord responds

Discord has taken action after a report earlier this month detailed a web of accounts that were tracking users and archiving messages on a massive scale.

The report, by 404 Media, claimed that over 4bn public messages – including voice data – of up to 620 million users had been scooped up by bots across some of Discord’s biggest servers, including for games such as Minecraft and Among Us.

This data had then been packaged up for sale – for as little as $5 (£4) – by the now-defunct website Spy.pet, which advertised the data as a way for companies to train AI models or for “federal agents looking for a new source of intel”.

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Now, Discord has said it has banned the accounts responsible and was considering legal action.

“Our Safety team has been diligently investigating this activity, and we identified certain accounts that we believe are affiliated with the Spy.pet website, which we have subsequently banned,” a Discord spokesperson told 404 Media.

“Based on our investigation, the accounts accessed Discord servers that were open and available for anyone to join or where the accounts had easy access to a valid invite link. Once in these spaces, these accounts could only access the same information as any other user in those servers.”

There’s no suggestion that Discord private messages were at risk, or personal data beyond what a user shares on their profile. Still, concerns over user safety have been raised due to the owner of Spy.Pet reportedly being a member of harassment forum Kiwi Farms.

Last month, Discord announced it was letting third-party developers create games to play on its platform, marking an extension of Discord’s Activities initiative that launched in December 2023.