Discord censors r/WallStreetBets server after GameStop stock drive blamed on “white supremacists”

Discord censors r/WallStreetBets server after GameStop stock drive blamed on “white supremacists”
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Discord, the primary voice chat and messaging service that used by Reddit’s r/WallStreetBets community, has terminated the server over “hate speech.” The termination comes following several unsourced claims from journalists at Vice Media’s Motherboard and The Hill insinuated that efforts to drive up the stock price for the languishing video game retailer GameStop were being conducted by white supremacists.  

The Reddit community used Discord as a primary messaging platform for its users to communicate their efforts to raise the price of GameStop stock. The effort did not go unnoticed by the Biden administration, which stated it was “monitoring the situation.”  

Well, I'm also happy to repeat that we have the first female Treasury Secretary and a team that's surrounding her and [questions about the market] we'll send to them," said White House press secretary Jen Psaki in a briefing on Wednesday 

"But our team is, of course —  our economic team, including Secretary Yellen and others, are monitoring the situation,” Psaki added. It's a good reminder, though, that the stock market isn't the only measure of the health of our economy.”  

In response to the widespread media attention, Discord banned the server, but claimed that it only did so because its owners continued to allow “hateful and discriminatory content after repeated warnings” including “hate speech” and “glorifying violence.”  

Discord did not provide evidence of its claims of “hate speech,” staying in line with previous efforts to censor conservative speech from being broadcasted on social media platforms.  

Discord released the following statement: 

The server has been on our Trust & Safety team’s radar for some time due to occasional content that violates our Community Guidelines, including hate speech, glorifying violence, and spreading misinformation. Over the past few months, we have issued multiple warnings to the server admin. 

Today, we decided to remove the server and its owner from Discord for continuing to allow hateful and discriminatory content after repeated warnings. 

To be clear, we did not ban this server due to financial fraud related to GameStop or other stocks. Discord welcomes a broad variety of personal finance discussions, from investment clubs and day traders to college students and professional financial advisors. We are monitoring this situation and in the event there are allegations of illegal activities, we will cooperate with authorities as appropriate. 

Progressive Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez commented on the situation prior to the Discord ban, seemingly in approval of the amateur investors’ actions to beat Wall Street at its own game.  

Gotta admit it’s really something to see Wall Streeters with a long history of treating our economy as a casino complain about a message board of posters also treating the market as a casino,” she wrote on Twitter. “Anyways, Tax the Rich.”  

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