There’s little debate that the internet can be a toxic place, especially when large groups of people with potentially diverging beliefs or interests gather in the same place. While Discord has proven to be a popular platform for people to hang out and build generally healthy communities, it has also been a space where a person is likely to experience sometimes unpleasant and even potentially dangerous encounters with others.

On community boards like Reddit and Quora, one question that frequently appears runs along the lines of, “Why is Discord so unbelievably toxic?” People can get harassed or attacked on Discord for any number of things, small or large, such as the sound of their voice, their ability or inability to play video games well, and differing stances on social issues like politics, religion, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. Discord has even been a gathering place for controversial communities like white supremacist groups.

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The instant messaging and VoIP application, which facilitates the creation of communities, has consistently been combatting the toxicity and harassment that has inevitably appeared on the platform. In some groups, Discord is noticeably more peaceful than it was perhaps just a few years ago, but the company is working to further improve the situation and announced yesterday that it has acquired an AI company called Sentropy, a startup whose purpose is tracking and moderating online harassment.

discord buys AI company Sentropy to combat harassment

According to a statement released by Sentropy about the acquisition, the company's focus is to improve the world both digitally and physically by addressing the ever-present challenge of online hate and abuse. Discord has seen continual growth since it first appeared in 2015, expanding beyond a communications platform for gamers to include other topics, and its goal is to enable people to make connections securely and reliably.

The purpose behind Sentropy and Discord coming together will be to enhance the chat platform’s Trust and Safety capabilities by improving user privacy and security while fighting online abuse. The need for this has only become more evident as Discord’s monthly user base recently surpassed 150 million. In 2020 alone, the company deleted over 160,000 accounts for nonconsensual, exploitative content and harassment. It's not entirely clear how the Sentropy acquisition will be experienced on the user side of things, or whether the company’s moderation and safety tools will remain behind the scenes.

As Sentropy transitions to focus on Discord, the company’s existing security products will be shut down, but Sentropy CEO and Co-Founder John Redgrave assured customers that the company will assist them in finding alternatives to protect their communities. One of the benefits of Discord acquiring Sentropy, according to Redgrave, is that working solutions will be shared with like-minded communities and not solely benefit Discord.

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Sources: Medium, Kotaku