Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier on Wednesday announced a civil investigation into Discord, saying the state has subpoenaed the online chat platform for records tied to child safety, age-verification practices, content moderation and the reporting of exploitative activity.
The subpoena, dated March 18, was issued under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act and orders Discord to produce documents by April 9.
In a statement, Uthmeier said many state criminal investigations into online child predators have involved Discord and said the investigation will examine why offenders appear to use the platform so frequently and what safeguards the company has in place to protect minors. Sarasota County Sheriff Kurt Hoffman, who was quoted in the announcement, said law enforcement has seen offenders use platforms such as Roblox and Discord to contact children.
“Many of our criminal investigations into internet child predators lead to one place: Discord,” said Uthmeier. “Groomers and predators seem to believe that they can get away with targeting children on Discord—and we are going to find out why. Discord owes us an explanation on the overwhelming use of its platform among predators, and what they are doing to protect children.”
The subpoena shows Florida is seeking a broad range of records, including marketing and promotional materials describing Discord as safe or suitable for children, internal documents about marketing to minors, and records supporting any public claims that the platform is safe or appropriate for all ages.
The state also seeks documents describing Discord’s chat moderation, content moderation and reporting systems, along with complaints submitted by children, parents or third parties alleging child-safety issues.
State investigators are also demanding communications between Discord and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, records involving civil or criminal cases tied to children’s contact with users on the platform, and documents explaining the company’s parental controls, age-verification procedures and the types of personal information it collects from child users. The subpoena further requests Florida-specific data on child users, account removals and time spent on the platform.
The filing does not accuse Discord of criminal wrongdoing. Instead, it says the state is investigating whether the company’s conduct may have violated Florida’s consumer-protection law, which bars unfair or deceptive acts or practices in trade or commerce.
