Brazil's federal government has filed a civil collective moral damages lawsuit against Discord, seeking 500 million reais—approximately $97 million—over alleged failures to protect children and women. Solicitor General Jorge Messias announced the legal action following an order by the National Data Protection Authority requiring Discord to suspend livestreams and video calls in Brazil. The suspension order was issued after a 13-year-old girl died by suicide following a broadcast where authorities stated she was encouraged to harm herself. Discord filed an appeal against the suspension.
The lawsuit follows a separate enforcement action against TikTok, which was fined 153.7 million reais, or roughly $30 million, by Brazil's data protection authority over irregularities in processing the data of children and adolescents. The authority ordered ByteDance to delete data collected in breach of regulations, estimating that the company may have processed data from up to 8 million children due to flaws in age verification. TikTok stated it will comply with new rules, including tougher default privacy settings for users under 16, increased parental controls, and enhanced content filtering.
Regulatory scrutiny is expanding across the nation's digital sector. Agency director Lorena Giuberti Coutinho stated that proceedings have begun to check whether 22 social media networks and platforms comply with a child protection law passed this year. The legislation mandates that accounts belonging to users under 16 must be linked to a parent's account and requires platforms to verify user ages. Additionally, the consumer rights group Collective Defense Institute is pursuing a 3 billion reais action against the Brazilian units of TikTok, Kwai, and Meta concerning minors' use of their platforms.
