The Discord Warning System informs users when they have broken our rules, what actions we have taken, and how it may impact their overall account standing. This system includes multiple touchpoints for users to have more transparency into Discord interventions in order to better understand what happens when our rules are broken and how to avoid receiving a warning or violation in the future.
This system is built to be fair and transparent to users. We want users to learn our rules and stay on the platform, whenever possible. We have designed the system to show users what they did wrong, provide more educational resources about our rules, and to place appropriate restrictions on accounts so that Discord users get a chance to make things right.
The system gives users room to learn from their mistakes and change their behavior. We believe that helping people learn how to follow Discord’s rules makes the platform safer.
However, because protecting our users is a top priority, when we become aware of a user engaging in repeated violations or particularly egregious harms, we will take swift action to permanently remove that user and the violating content.
What this article covers:
- Violations
- Account Standing
- Suspensions (aka Bans)
- Server Violations
- Warnings
- Requesting a Review
- Frequently Asked Questions
Violations
Users who break the rules will receive a system direct message (DM) from Discord letting them know they received a violation. Users will receive a DM each time they break our rules.
Within the DM, users will see a card that summarizes the violation. Pressing on the card will reveal further details for the violation.
The card will go over the following with the user:
- which specific policy they violated
- it may include detail about which content broke our rules
- it lists any actions that Discord has taken on the user
- a link to a policy explanation for the relevant Discord Community Guidelines
Our system determines a relevant and specific set of actions to take for a particular violation of our policies. When weighing what action to take, we consider the severity of the harm, the type of user content (i.e. text, image, behavior), and the user’s history of past violations.
For example, if a user posted an image that broke the rules, they may temporarily lose the ability to post images. If the violation was not particularly severe, they may lose these features for a few hours. If it was a repeated violation or higher severity violation, they may lose some features for a few days or up to one year.
For the most severe harms, users will be immediately subject to a permanent suspension and should look to their email inbox for more information from Discord.
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Account Standing
Reviewing Account Standing in User Settings
Users will be able to see their account’s standing with Discord by heading into your User Settings > My Account > Standing. For most users, they will see that they’re all good, and not much else.
Users will be able to see their account’s standing with Discord in their Privacy & Safety settings. For most users, they will see that they’re all good, and not much else.
When users break our rules and receive a violation, they will be brought to the Account Standing section. This section will show users a summary of their violations and how they have affected their standing. Repeated violations will add up to trigger increasingly strong penalties, up to permanent suspensions.
Users will be able to see where they stand based on their track record. Since we weigh each violation based on the severity of the harm, a user does not have a fixed number of chances before they receive a harsher penalty. Where they stand will depend on the severity of the violation.
Users will find themselves in one of the following standings:
- All good: The user has no active violations and has access to all Discord features
- Limited: The user has an active violation that temporarily limited access to some features. Further violations will result in more or longer limits.
- Very Limited: The user has one or more active violations that temporarily limited access to more features for a longer period of time. Further violations may put the account at risk.
- At Risk: The user has one or more active violations. Any further violations may result in a permanent suspension.
- Permanent suspension: The user no longer has access to Discord due to severe or repeated violations.
The account standing is determined based on any active violations and the severity of those violations. These can be viewed in the Active Violations section under Account Standing. After 90 days, most violations expire and no longer impact a user’s account standing. Particularly severe violations may remain on the user’s record for longer – the expiration date can be found on the violation detail.
After violations expire, they can still be viewed in the Expired Violation section.
Suspensions (aka Bans)
When a user repeatedly breaks Discord’s rules or has a particularly serious violation, they will lose access to Discord. This suspension can be temporary (i.e. temp ban) or permanent (i.e. ban).
A suspended user will still be able to log-in to review their Account Standing, and see both their violations and the duration of their suspension. This view will be available for the duration of the suspension. Users will also be able to submit feedback and request a review of a violation if they believe we made a mistake. (See below for more information on submitting feedback).
Server Violations
When a server is focused on or contains a lot of content that breaks Discord’s rules, the owner will receive a violation and the guild may be removed or restricted. Just like user violations, the server owner will receive a system DM that summarizes the violation and provides them with more detail.
Our system determines relevant actions for server violations depending on the particular violation. The server may be removed or lose access to certain features. The owner may lose the ability to create more servers or be permanently suspended.
When a server is engaged in serious violations of Discord rules, the server’s members may also receive a violation that affects their account standing.
Only the server owner can request a review of server violations.
Warnings
Discord will continue to send warnings to users that inform them of our rules. We may send warnings when a user was in a server that broke our rules or if they interacted with content that broke our rules, but did not engage in the violating behavior themselves.
Warnings will come via a system DM and will contain information about what happened and more information about our rules. Warnings do not impact account standing but are still important for users to understand our rules so they can correct future behavior. These warnings are similar to those that Discord has sent in the past.
Requesting a Review
Sometimes we get it wrong. Every violation notice includes a link to our webform, where users can provide feedback or ask that Discord review a violation and penalty applied to their account. While it may take time to respond to every request, we prioritize helping users that believe they have been permanently suspended in error.
Users can let us know if they feel Discord took an unwarranted action against their account. The Warning System started rolling out on October 24th, 2023 in select regions. View our Safety News Hub for many more updates to our Warning System in the future.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Are suspensions temporary or permanent?
A: Temporary suspensions can last up to 1 year. A user’s account and username will be preserved for that time. They will regain access at the end of the suspension.
Permanent suspensions (formerly called “bans”) do not expire. The user will lose their account. They will have a grace period to appeal, after which their username will be made available again.
Q: Do any current or past violations I received before the launch of the Warning System count against my account standing?
A: No, only violations that have occurred after the launch of the Warning System will count against your account standing.
Q: Why did my account standing jump from “All Good” to a permanent suspension?
A: Each violation is weighed differently – depending on the severity of the incident. A high severity violation may cause the account standing to change more dramatically. The most severe violations lead straight to a permanent suspension (i.e. violations ofto a child safety policy).
Q: How many chances do I get? What are the penalties for one violation or five violations?
A: Discord’s violations are not strikes and there is no simple formula from number of violations to specific penalties. We weigh the severity and context of each violation and we look at a user’s history of past violations when calculating the user’s account standing.
Q: What to do if I want to report another Discord user’s actions?
A: See our article about how to report abuse to Discord.
Q: Can I appeal my account standing overall?
A: No, you cannot appeal your account standing overall. You should appeal specific violations that contribute to your account standing.
Q: What’s the difference between a violation and a warning?
A: Discord issues violations when we become aware of users who have broken our rules. Discord will take action on their account and their account standing will be impacted. The intervention depends on each unique violation. The account standing impact depends both on the unique violation and culmination of active violations.
Warnings may be issued when a user was in a server that broke our rules or engaged with content that broke our rules, but the user did not do anything themselves. Warnings do not affect account standing. They provide users with more information about the rules.
Q: Are you now scanning all my messages in servers, group chats and DMs?
A: Our Warning System doesn’t introduce any new scanning of content or messages. This feature is a new way for users to have more transparency into Discord content moderation decisions and the status of their account.
As described in our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, Discord does scan all spaces for high harm content like malware and child sexual abuse material, and we may scan for other policy violations in large communities. We do not scan all content in smaller spaces such as direct messages (DM), group chats, and small/non-community servers–for other violations of our Community Guidelines. For content in teen spaces, learn more about protective features like our safety alerts.