Discord Updates Terms of Service to Force Arbitration over Lawsuits

[Megalith]

Discord has updated its TOS with language that essentially prohibits users in the United States from filing lawsuits against the company. Users may, however, opt out by emailing "[email protected]" within 30 days of the TOS taking effect or the creation of the user's account.

"I want to be clear that we're not doing this to dodge responsibility for anything," the representative said. "We believe in doing right by you, and we take feedback into account (see the recent Nitro Classic changes). The reason that there's a arbitration agreement in our Terms of Service is that there have been a continuously increasing raft of class actions and firms that look for companies that are susceptible to class actions.”

 

[rudy]

Pretty sure that this has no legal grounds and will be "tos"sed out in court immediately. You cant just write up an EULA or TOS to rewrite laws any way you want. In coming class action lawsuit over trying to stop people from filing class action lawsuits.

 

[purple_monster]

plaintiff: we got some damages, gotta sue ya- see you in court we have some evidence to present

defendant: you cant sue us its in the contract

judge: sounds like you are getting sued.

defendant: but in our contract it says we cant be sued

judge: sounds like you are getting sued.

 

[joobjoob]

Arbitration says the pod people are in charge. Whatever slivers of humanity remained from its early beginnings are gone and will never return.

It's like once an empire starts planning preemptive wars.

 

[DeathFromBelow]

Pretty sure that this has no legal grounds and will be "tos"sed out in court immediately. You cant just write up an EULA or TOS to rewrite laws any way you want. In coming class action lawsuit over trying to stop people from filing class action lawsuits.

The problem is that the Supreme Court recently reinterpreted the Federal Arbitration Act of 1921 in a way that makes forced arbitration agreements enforceable. As things stand the government can't take away your first amendment right to petition the government for redress of grievances, but a private company can.

That said, TOS agreements that include unilateral amendment provisions have been found to be unenforceable in state courts.

"I want to be clear that we're not doing this to dodge responsibility for anything," the representative said. "We believe in doing right by you, and we take feedback into account (see the recent Nitro Classic changes). The reason that there's a arbitration agreement in our Terms of Service is that there have been a continuously increasing raft of class actions and firms that look for companies that are susceptible to class actions."

What a load of bullshit. What they really mean is they don't want to be held accountable if they accidentally leak your data. What else are they going to get a class action for?

 

[ZiggyDeath]

What a load of bullshit. What they really mean is they don't want to be held accountable if they accidentally leak your data. What else are they going to get a class action for?

Leak? What leak? They're offering a free service. That basically comes with the territory that they are selling user data.

 

[DeathFromBelow]

Leak? What leak? They're offering a free service. That basically comes with the territory that they are selling user data.

They also offer paid features. They're almost certainly doing this for protection in case they accidentally leak CC info.

 

[velusip]

I've been saying from the start that Discord is run by idiots. It will make for some good entertainment.

 

[Dead Parrot]

Sounds like they may have caught some lawsuits from former "Partners" or whatever the term was that lost their special privileges over unspecified violations of a vague Acceptable Behavior code.

Or as others have suggested, they are covering their ass over all the harvested data they are getting ready to sell.

 

[KingGlade]

I've been saying from the start that Discord is run by idiots. It will make for some good entertainment.

I've never really seen the appeal to the service. I've used the native steam or skype if I wanted to communicate over voice.

 

[Icon_Charlie]

When Discord started up it's service I had severe reservations about all of it. Especially doing games. Team speak is a superior setup, but Discord has the investment money to spin this to make you believe that this is a "cool" place to be.

All I see is another facebook/twitter/etc data gather of your personal information in the guise of something cool

As for the TOS? that is all depends on what state you are in as well as how much money you want to fight them with.

In the end it is all about the money... In business It always is.....

 

[BSmith]

Leak? What leak? They're offering a free service. That basically comes with the territory that they are selling user data.

Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner!

 

[fadedlogic]

Federal Courts are already swamped and lengthy delays in trials. They do everything in their power to to avoid trials including forcing litigants to mediation or arbitration prior to proceeding to trial. Class Action lawsuits are incredibly expensive and rarely if ever result in a "decent" amount of money going to the plaintiffs and the majority of it going to the the attorneys. https://www.bankrate.com/finance/personal-finance/class-action-lawsuit.aspx Arbitration can be much easier and cheaper for both sides than expensive trials. https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/arbitration-pros-cons-29807.html

But best of all, there is viable competition out there for Dischord and you can vote with your feet and head to those competitors whose ToS are more in line with your personal preferences.

 

[velusip]

I've never really seen the appeal to the service. I've used the native steam or skype if I wanted to communicate over voice.

Discord filled several roles at the right time. The growing gaming and streaming "communities" and their want for an uncomplicated team chat program (unlike Teamspeak and Mumble), and to simultaneously supplement the addictive meme-sharing interface for those trying to abandon Facebook (and the like). It was an easy and accessible interface (with a web client) at the right time. Especially among leisure groups (gamers, streamers, digital art groups, and other nerdy hobbyists), Discord became somewhat of an incumbent very quickly. I'm not entirely sure who financed it, but the push was aggressive . Ubiquity and timing played a large role in their monumental rise in popularity.

There were (and are) lots of other similar services, but they mostly targeted working groups and tried to compete with the wrong/irrelevant apps such as Slack and whatsapp. The possible competitors lacked many must-have features such as channel groups, inline image sharing, and group chats. And for all the things that Discord got wrong (and continue to fuck up), it really does have one of the more feature-rich and accessible GUIs. Compare to Keybase, Spectrum, Ring, Mattermost, Rocket Chat, Riot|Matrix, etc.

I'm merely acknowledging the success of Discord, but I don't support or condone it's use. It is suspicious as ol' fuck and would rather use one of the federated or server-less options. However, I'm yet to see a proper team chat program. Ideally, it would run on the Tox network (server-less, security first).

 

[KingGlade]

Discord filled several roles at the right time. The growing gaming and streaming "communities" and their want for an uncomplicated team chat program (unlike Teamspeak and Mumble), and to simultaneously supplement the addictive meme-sharing interface for those trying to abandon Facebook (and the like). It was an easy and accessible interface (with a web client) at the right time. Especially among leisure groups (gamers, streamers, digital art groups, and other nerdy hobbyists), Discord became somewhat of an incumbent very quickly. I'm not entirely sure who financed it, but the push was aggressive . Ubiquity and timing played a large role in their monumental rise in popularity.

There were (and are) lots of other similar services, but they mostly targeted working groups and tried to compete with the wrong/irrelevant apps such as Slack and whatsapp. The possible competitors lacked many must-have features such as channel groups, inline image sharing, and group chats. And for all the things that Discord got wrong (and continue to fuck up), it really does have one of the more feature-rich and accessible GUIs. Compare to Keybase, Spectrum, Ring, Mattermost, Rocket Chat, Riot|Matrix, etc.

I'm merely acknowledging the success of Discord, but I don't support or condone it's use. It is suspicious as ol' fuck and would rather use one of the federated or server-less options. However, I'm yet to see a proper team chat program. Ideally, it would run on the Tox network (server-less, security first).

Well, put! I too would like server-less options, and I think the only other service I've used was the Razer one but synapse is so buggy I stopped using it quickly. For my use case, the steam voice chat works well.