What is Discord? What to know about Tumbler Ridge shooter's chat platform

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In other words, the vast majority of Discord users conduct nonproblematic exchanges, while dark web users are a tiny fraction of internet users who often participate in illicit marketplaces or exchanges of malware.

There have been problems with the platform. White supremacists took to Discord to discuss and co-ordinate a hate-motivated Unite the Right rally that led to a vehicle rampage that killed one and injured dozens in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.

It has also been reported that U.S. commentator Charlie Kirk's assassin used Discord while plotting the 2025 attack, and a 2021 study in the U.K. looked into its widespread use by the extreme right in Britain and globally.

The company constantly adapts its safety protocols to protect minors and others from hate, bullying, violence and doxxing, but its acceptance of sexual and explicit content for consenting adults has often made those efforts challenging.

With the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, those companies continue to chart turbulent waters trying to keep people -- and increasingly the AI itself -- from doing or encouraging harms. In the Tumbler Ridge case, that includes allegations that OpenAI's ChatGPT function advised the killer on how to orchestrate a mass shooting.

Because Discord seeks to allow users to create their own rules for individual servers, there is the potential for trouble. But much of the blame for what happens on its servers falls on those who abuse the platform, as with any social media application.

This has become a huge grey area in social media circles in recent years. OpenAI has faced legal challenges after it came to light that the platform had cancelled one of Van Rootselaar's ChatGPT accounts over violent rhetoric but didn't immediately contact law enforcement. The shooter created a new account and continued using ChatGPT until the morning of the massacre.

Discord, like most social media platforms, can report users to law enforcement if it detects or is alerted to serious illegal activity, threats of self-harm or imminent violence. Its guidelines prohibit the most egregious of offences, such as sharing child sexual abuse materials or engaging in hate speech or violent extremism.

As with any inappropriate online behaviour, the threshold for going to law enforcement rather than trying to police it within the platform itself can be hard to establish.

In the murder conspiracy case involving James Cody Bryant of Bellingham, Wash., Discord voluntarily shared Bryant's exchanges with Van Rootselaar with the FBI and RCMP, but that came from its own investigation in the days after the school shooting. The company said it is co-operating fully with law enforcement and suspended Bryant's account immediately after it became aware of its content.