The r/Pokémon subreddit Discord is one of the larger online meeting places for gamers and fans of the successful Nintendo series. It has over 300,000 users who use it for fighting, trading or just hanging out between work, class or whatever is going on in their lives. And this week its owner was banned from the platform after allegations he had been sexually exploiting underage users.
Content Warning: The following article contains mentions of grooming, child pornography, and other predatory behaviors.
Since its inception in 2015, the r/Pokémon Discord has served as a key gathering place for players of a series to see its latest releases Pokemon scarlet And Violetwere those of the Nintendo Switch the fastest selling games of all time. The Discord server is unofficial, meaning it’s not moderated by Nintendo or The Pokémon Company, and is also open to players aged 13 and over, although there aren’t any security checks to stop even younger users from getting a Discord account create.
The chief admin of r/Pokémon Discord was a user named technophønix. But just last December, screenshots allegedly showing Technophønix soliciting child pornography from minors on the server and attempting to meet them for sex were first reported to Discord’s other mods. They say they opened a ticket on Discord to investigate the issue immediately, but it wasn’t until February 2nd, over a month later, that Discord permanently removed him from the server and permanently banned him from his service.
“While we continue to invest heavily in technology advancements and tools to proactively detect CSAM and grooming, we also rely on Discord moderators and users to submit reports, which we escalate and investigate,” said a Discord spokesperson my city in an opinion. “Due to the volume of reports we are investigating, it is not currently our policy to provide regular updates or communications on the status of these investigations and related actions. However, in this case we can confirm that the review of this report followed standard protocol and the user in question was permanently banned.”
G/O Media may receive a commission
It’s a camera. For your car.
Ring Car Cam’s dual-sided HD cameras capture activity in and around your car in HD detail.
An r/Pokémon Discord mod known by the nickname Cell was the one who originally reported the allegations to Discord. said my city The first evidence of child grooming and predatory behavior was first reported to them on December 16. An official report was then sent to Discord’s Trust and Safety team via a support ticket on December 17th. The only response Cell received was around January 11th, when a Discord representative informed them that the matter was still under investigation. It wasn’t until February 2nd that Cell and the rest of the mods finally got confirmation from Discord that Technophønix was banned.
The things he is accused of have been described in detail a google doc created by Cell and others, including several alleged screenshots of disruptive Discord conversations in which Technophønix repeatedly asks for photos of sexual acts involving users that Cell and others say were minors at the time. In some screenshots, technophønix even talks about bringing them to their home or trying to travel to meet up with them. The alleged screenshots are from 2016 and as recently as 2020 and include an exchange in which Technophønix appears to be defending child pornography and statutory rape based on the victim’s age.
my city Technophønix asked for a comment on Discord before his ban, but didn’t get an immediate response. In screenshots of conversations with mods after being confronted, Technophønix claimed not to know that the people he was speaking to were minors, said he had not sought them out through the r/Pokémon Discord server, and that certain Comments meant as a joke or made while intoxicated.
After the allegations first surfaced, Cell said my city that technophønix was initially “compliant” with their demands to leave the discord and hand over control to the other admins. But when the broadcast never came, Cell and others broke off to start a new Discord on January 30th, trying to update new and existing users about the allegations and the need to join the new server. Meanwhile, messages on the old Discord server were reportedly being atomized via Technophønix, leaving many members confused and in the dark as to what was going on.
“We pinged everyone and the server became a complete mess after that,” Cell said my city. “[technophønix] deleted the original ad, locked the entire server (which means no one can send messages on the server), started kicking people off the server, and finally, after almost an hour, he told us he was ready to join to come to an agreement with us regarding the server.”
However, that became moot when Discord finally kicked in. “We are very sorry you have encountered this type of content and understand that it can be worrying and stressful to report,” a representative from the Discord Trust & Safety team wrote in a dated email February 2 in response to the original ticket. “We really appreciate you bringing this information and supporting us in our efforts to keep Discord as secure as possible.”
Cell and the other mods spent the day gaining official ownership of the original r/Pokémon Discord server, which turned into yet another mini roller coaster ride. While Cell and the other admins have the power to unlock the original server when they are ready, Discord initially informed them that they could not transfer ownership of a server that belonged to a deactivated account. About 10 hours later, another company representative told them to ignore the previous message and that “given the circumstances,” ownership would be transferred immediately.
Discord declined to answer questions about when my city stretched out.
The company came under scrutiny last year when it was learned that the person responsible for the mass shooting in Buffalo, New York had used her to share plans leading up to the massacre. Social media platforms and gaming communities in general have been criticized for not investing more resources Moderating the spread of extremist groups and ideologies on the internet. However, protecting minors from sex offenders is an even more fundamental security issue.
“Security is critical to our work on Discord, and we take the protection of all Discord users, especially our younger users, incredibly seriously,” said a Discord spokesperson my city. “We work diligently to keep child-harmful content off our service and to take action where we become aware, including banning users, shutting down servers and contacting the appropriate authorities where appropriate.”
Correction 03/02/2023 4:28 PM ET: Fixed an inaccuracy regarding the mod team’s timing Submitting the support ticket.
