Last Tuesday, July 4, the Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro (PCRJ) arrested another suspect for creating a group on the Discord app to rape vulnerable people. The arrest is part of Operation Dark Room investigations, which began in March of this year, in partnership with the Federal Police and police officers from several states in Brazil.
The suspect is Pedro Ricardo Conceição da Rocha, a 19-year-old who, according to the police, was the creator and administrator of the platform's main server. According to a report by Folha de São Paulo, he is also suspected of selling or offering for sale and storing files with explicit sex scenes and juvenile pornography.
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Another three search and seizure warrants were carried out in Teresópolis and Cachoeiras de Macacu, municipalities in the mountainous region of Rio de Janeiro. And, on June 27, two teenagers (14 and 17 years old) were apprehended on suspicion of participating in child pornography groups on the app.
What happened on Discord?
The crimes were committed in the virtual environment of the application Discord. He and other youths used three of the tool's servers to commit crimes against teenagers and also animals, via the exchange of text messages, audio, files and video calls. In conversations, they also made open apologies for racism, Nazism and misogyny, as reported by the police.
Videos published in the app's "rooms" showed heavy content, which, in some cases, had animal mutilations and sacrifices.
Still according to the investigations, underage adolescents were blackmailed and embarrassed in these virtual environments and, in some cases, also became sexual slaves of the bosses of these groups. According to a report by the G1 portal, police reported that “virtual rapes” were broadcast live to anyone on the server.
How does the app work?
Discord is a popular application, especially among young people, that works in the style of “chat rooms”. When someone joins the server, they can speak freely, as if they were on a call with everyone else there. In addition, you can also use it like any other messaging app, such as WhatsApp.
It is also very popular among gamers. Everyone gathers on a server and chats live while playing. Thus, they can strategize or provoke each other throughout the match.
Due to the ease and freedom of the platform, experts point out that it ends up becoming “a lawless land”.
When Operation Dark Room was in its first phase, Discord sent out a press release, noting that it does not comment on specific cases. However, he pointed out that it has a “zero tolerance policy for activities that are potentially harmful to society”.
This, however, is not the first time that the app has been involved in reporting crimes. Other times, the platform has already been denounced for promoting content involving pedophilia, sexual exploitation, self-mutilation, racism, mistreatment of animals, incitement to murder, and even information leakage secret.
Discord isn't the only app; Telegram is also in the crosshairs of police operations
By promoting a certain “freedom” of content – including being used as a great disseminator of adult content on the internet – the telegram also became the target of similar police operations. Including, South Korea was the scene of an equally frightening case in March 2020 involving the app.
As found by the South Korean police, there were private groups on Telegram – called Nth Room – in which victims were forced to perform sexual acts. In addition, they were encouraged to commit a series of other crimes, such as sexual exploitation and abuse, coercion, violation of privacy and even rape.
Images and videos of explicit and criminal content were shared in these groups. Some of the victims were minors or women who had their cell phones hacked and were blackmailed so that their intimate photographs would not be released.
According to a BBC report, at least 10,000 people used these chat rooms. Most were men who paid between $80 and $1,200 to join these private groups. Because they are high prices, most of the members were popular CEOs, sportsmen and even famous artists in the country.
The case was only exposed after an investigation of two journalism students. With the irrefutable evidence, the whole country mobilized for the police to take some action against the groups.
In the investigation, it was discovered that there were about 74 victims of blackmail, 16 of them minors. They were forced to make intimate videos for the groups.
