Recent leaks of classified U.S. military documents on the social media platform Discord have highlighted a major challenge for national security and online platforms alike.
What Happened? Classified documents pertaining to the Russia-Ukraine War and foreign intelligence assessments were leaked on various social media platforms. The incident, which occurred in April, involved two sets of documents that were circulated on Twitter, Telegram, and 4chan. Jack Teixeira, an airman first class of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, was allegedly responsible for taking photographs of the printouts of the documents at his parents' home in Dighton, Massachusetts and posting them to the instant messaging platform Discord.
Furthermore, it has come to light that a subset of the documents was also shared on Discord servers catering to a YouTuber and Microsoft's Minecraft, in late February and early March. In April, a user on the political imageboard /pol/ of 4chan, a notorious online forum, posted several documents. The leaked documents subsequently spread throughout pro-Russian Telegram channels, and at least one image was doctored to depict a higher number of Ukrainian casualties than Russian ones.
Clint Smith, Discord’s chief legal officer, stated: "Classified military intelligence documents pose a significant, complex challenge for Discord as they do for other online platforms – only authorized government personnel can determine whether a document is classified, unclassified, or even authentic."
"And currently, there is no structured process for the government to communicate their determinations to platforms like Discord," Smith added.
The challenges facing social media platforms like Discord are twofold, as they must balance giving young gamers the space to be themselves while also detecting when they post illegal content.
In dialogue with CNN, Jennifer Golbeck, a professor at the University of Maryland’s College of Information Studies, commented on the matter: "A lot of these guys find their social circles in these online gaming spaces, and that can be great. But if the culture of the platform shifts to rewarding things that you shouldn’t be doing, it can be hard if you’re really invested in that social group to give that up."
This is not the first time sensitive military information has been leaked within a gaming community. As recently as January 2023, someone reportedly published confidential information on an F-16 fighter jet in a forum of Gaijin Entertainment's "War Thunder." The multiplayer online game focused on military vehicles has had at least four instances where players leaked weapon schematics in order to gain an advantage in online debates.
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