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10mo ago

New Discord TOS binds you to forced arbitration - Opt-Out Now

Read about Discord's Terms of Service

Forced arbitration means any legal disputes you may have with Discord must be resolved through a single third party mediator, who 99% of the time is chosen by, and will rule in favor of, the corporation/Discord. This effectively removes all your legal rights as a consumer, because arbitration decisions are legally binding and non-appealable.

The new ToS goes into effect April 15th, 2024.

YOU CAN OPT OUT OF ARBITRATION. You must email arbitration-opt-out@discord.com BEFORE MAY 15TH (30 days after ToS effective date) with your username stating that you wish to opt out of the arbitration clause. Once May 15th passes you are bound to arbitration with Discord forever.

Opt-out before it's too late.

Technology @beehaw.org

New Discord TOS binds you to forced arbitration - Opt-Out Now

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Privacy Guides @lemmy.one

New Discord TOS binds you to forced arbitration - Opt-Out Now

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New Discord TOS binds you to forced arbitration - Opt-Out Now

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30 comments

Well that's not binding in the EU. Lmao wtf
- They explicitly state that their arbitration clause only applies in the US, probably because the US is one of the few major markets that lets them get away with arbitration nonsense and don't want to get slapped by the EU.

Well, they're forcing ads on the free version now, so maybe Teamspeak is the place to be 😉
- How's Mumble these days?
  
  Unironically have wanted to spin up a murmur server for a few months now. Maybe I'll make that my project for the day.
- Matrix is quite similar to (older) Discord and therefore a good (easy to switch to) alternative.
- Does Teamspeak has a chat that can be browsed later on? Else it's not useful for anything other than regular voice chat.
  Rather I'd start renting a small vps and set up Matrix and if voice chat is not natively supported I'd also set up Teamspeak alongside.

This sounds extremely illegal bait and switch by many corps including roku and now this
- Very scummy, but neither illegal nor bait and switch. For the vast majority of people Discord is free; there’s no lock-in or purchase, which is the necessary element for something to be bait and switch. You can walk away at any time without losing anything of value (as defined by the market and by law).
  
  Not according to France who successfully sued Google for putting competing map makers or of business. Valuable competition has been lost.
  
  haven't been in lemmy much, have you? If you aren't giving away your life's work for free with commercial usage license, you are doing something illegal and it's perfectly fine to steal it. It doesn't matter if you're not a mega corp and want to make a living, if your work doesn't belong to us, you're not welcome.

Guess they have a press release about compromised user data to release on May 30th...
Which undoubtedly already happened.

Here's the email address to opt out: arbitration-opt-out@discord.com

Opt-out. You can decline this agreement to arbitrate by emailing an opt-out notice to arbitration-opt-out@discord.com within 30 days of April 15, 2024 or when you first register your Discord account, whichever is later; otherwise, you shall be bound to arbitrate disputes in accordance with the terms of these paragraphs. If you opt out of these arbitration provisions, Discord also will not be bound by them.

man i hate this kind of stuff. Etsy pulled the same thing last year too

Seems the deadline is actually April 15th.
Edit: misinterpreted the date the ToS comes into effect as the deadline to opt out
- The new ToS goes into effect April 15th. You have 30 days after the effective date to opt out. Edited post for clarity

What is the opt out notice that we are supposed to send to them?
- I'm pretty sure you just need to send them an email containing your discord username and registered email, as well as "I would like to opt-out of the arbitration clause in your terms of service." That's what I have done.
  I have additionally emailed their help desk asking about what further details they may want from an opt-out request, we'll see if they respond. It is, of course, intentionally very vague.
  
  Can you update us with their response (if any). I'm very curious how this plays out. Part of me wants to opt-out but I'm nervous of any repercussions that may result from me not falling in line. My discord account is very precious, as I have loads of history I don't want to lose and I can very easily see Discord cutting ties with me just for opting out of their legal agenda.

Hadn't used my account for months anyway, but this seems a good reason to delete it..

Looks like the changes only apply to the US, right?
- It's impossible to apply this globally; many countries operate under different laws to begin with. This is also stated on the ToS's Limit of Liability section; quoting:
  WE DON’T EXCLUDE OR LIMIT OUR LIABILITY TO YOU WHERE IT WOULD BE ILLEGAL TO DO SO.
  Your best bet is to read the changes and see if any of it is applicable to your country. The linked section pretty much covers it up.
  As a reference, in my country it is impossible for companies to force you to a specific arbitrator. Discord can't push this term on me as it would be illegal.

While I appreciate how worried everyone is about there being an arbitration clause, I am tired of how many people act like this is completely new and something that discord just started doing to make their platform even worse:
Discord has had an arbitration and due process waiver in their TOS since at least May 2020: https://discord.com/terms/terms-of-service-may-2020
This is nothing new, the only reason people assume it was just added is because they don't bother to check and because discord bumps the opt-out date every time they change the general TOS. Still go ahead and use your rights to opt out, but people need to understand that discord isn't getting worse in this regard, discord was just always like this.

Can someone explain me, what opt-out is?

I bet there's a clause that emailing the opt out thing actually opts you back in.

30 comments