The future of user privacy and free speech is at risk
Behind the scenes of one of the biggest social media platforms has been an epic struggle with a valuable payout — user data. But not just any user data mind you. This struggle allegedly involves Nexon Korea Corporation, a South Korean video game maker, trying to obtain the data of copyright infringers on the Discord platform.
Nexon Korea Corporation is behind well-known video games such as MapleStory, MapleStory2, Sudden Attack, The Kingdom of the Winds, Dungeon & Fighter, Grand Chase, Dave the Diver, and Elsword. And it seems that Nexon has had multiple criminal copyright infringement complaints against other Korean servers that players use to run Nexon’s games, including one such culprit who is currently on the run and wanted by Interpol.
Needless to say, Nexon has no qualms about using the US court system to pursue copyright infringement suspects as well, but after delivering two such subpoenas to Discord, the online service provider has apparently had enough and is fighting back in the name of users’ privacy and free speech rights.Discord and privacy
Discord hasn’t had the best relationship with user privacy in the past. Back in 2023, it was forced to walk back changes to its privacy policy when it first introduced AI integration into its servers including Clyde, AutoMod AI, Conversation Summarizes, Avatar Remix, and more.
Originally it had removed language from a previous version of its policy, which then was added back to its current version as well as the following statement: “We may build features that help users engage with voice and video content, like create or send short recordings.”
Then it was found out in 2024 that four billion Discord chats, made by roughly 620 million users, logged into more than 14,000 servers had been harvested by a site called Spy.pet and set to be auctioned off to the highest bidders.
