The move has already drawn criticism from users who believe it’s an attack on free speech and claim that Discord is playing favorites. However, the company maintains that it will take action against anyone who violates its guidelines and terms of service — racists who condone or participate in violence happen to be part of that group. It’s aware that censorship is a “slippery slope,” but it clearly believes that freedom of expression ends when threats begin.
As it stands, services like Discord have pragmatic business reasons to ditch absolute neutrality. As Reddit found out first-hand, racists and other corrosive members tend to scare away fellow users, advertisers and other business opportunities. To an extent, Discord needs a cleaner chat environment if it wants to keep attracting new users and the money that follows.
