Subpoena for app called 'Discord' could unmask identities of Charlottesville white supremacists
Source: Washington Post
Subpoena for app called ‘Discord’ could unmask identities of Charlottesville white supremacists
By Meagan Flynn
August 7 at 7:08 AM
In the months before the Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally last August, a chat app called Discord was abuzz with alt-right agitators.
Discord, which was started in 2015 as a secure chat app for videogamers, also happened to be conducive for white supremacists, white nationalists, neo-Nazis and other members of the alt-right movement who sought to keep their identities secret.
It allowed the organizers and participants of the deadly Aug. 12 rally to convene in private, invite-only threads shrouded in anonymity, with usernames such as “kristall.night” and “WhiteTrash,” according to a federal lawsuit. On a Discord server called “Charlottesville 2.0,” they planned everything from car pools, dress code and lodging in Charlottesville to how one might improvise weapons in case of a fight. Some suggested using flag poles as a makeshift spear or club.
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The Discord messages have been cited in a federal lawsuit filed against the Unite the Right’s alleged organizers by counterprotesters who were injured during the rally, including two people hit by a car that rammed into a crowd, leaving one person dead. Attorneys for the counterprotesters have argued that these Discord messages and hundreds of others are central to proving that Unite the Right organizers “conspired to commit acts of violence, intimidation and harassment” against people in Charlottesville that weekend. The attorneys filed a subpoena for Discord, seeking to obtain the messages and account information of more than 30 anonymous users who appear to have participated in the Unite the Right rally.
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/08/07/subpoena-for-app-called-discord-could-unmask-identities-of-charlottesville-white-supremacists/