As Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton continues his crusade to sue, well, everything, he’s sued yet another foe: Discord, the messaging platform popular among gamers and niche online communities.
On Friday, Paxton announced that his office had filed a “landmark lawsuit” against Discord for “deceiving parents and exposing Texas children to predators.” The lawsuit, filed in Collin County District Court, claims that the company “maintains one of the internet’s most efficient hunting grounds for manipulation, grooming, and predatory behavior towards children.”
Paxton’s lawsuit argues that Discord’s design allows predators easy access to minors, and that a combination of “pseudonymous identity,” private messaging and private channels makes Discord “a uniquely efficient environment for bad actors.” Paxton also says that because moderators of Discord servers are often “hobbyists,” they are not trained to spot or stop both child abuse and the proliferation of child sexual abuse materials on servers.
Paxton’s lawsuit and press release cite several incidents involving Texas children and Discord as motivations for the suit. That includes a 2024 incident in which a 13-year-old Galveston County girl’s family said she was sexually assaulted by a man who groomed her on Discord and Roblox for several years. The family sued Discord in federal court last year.
“Discord has allowed and invited all kinds of nihilistic violence and evil. My office is taking action to protect our nation’s precious children from predators,” Paxton said in a press release announcing the suit. “We live in a time where the dangers children face online have never been greater, and every parent in Texas deserves to know their child is protected.”
The company first came under scrutiny from the Texas Attorney General’s Office last October, when Paxton announced he would investigate Discord after it was reported that the suspect in the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk had used the platform. Though the suit focuses mostly on allegations that the company failed to protect minors, it echoes language used in that investigation announcement, most notably mentions of “nihilistic violence.”
That the suit was filed in Collin County, in North Texas and far from Discord, Inc.’s San Francisco headquarters, is curious. Paxton’s office argues that the venue is proper partially because “Discord serves consumers in Collin County.” This logic should sound familiar to Paxton-watchers. An investigation from the Texas Tribune and ProPublica this week found that Paxton routinely sues companies in Texas counties with little to no connection to their operation to seek favorable outcomes, a practice known as “forum shopping.” Paxton sued drug-maker AstraZeneca in Harrison County, Texas, because the company’s website could theoretically be accessed from there.
Paxton also argued Collin County was a fine place to sue Discord because “violent online networks” like the “764 network” had “targeted and blackmailed” teenagers in that county. Online “sextortion” group 764 has been linked to inducing teenagers into self-harm, suicide and child sex abuse material production through blackmail and bullying.
The group has been described as a Satanic, far-right cult by some, and was designated as a terror network by the United States Department of Justice. A Stephenville, Texas, teenager named Bradley Chance Cadenhead started 764 in 2021, and it often works through Discord and Telegram. An associated group, CVLT, was linked to the sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl in Virginia by a Spring, Texas man. Several school shootings have also been linked to 764, including the 2025 Antioch High School shooting in Nashville, Tennessee.
Besides its use by sextortion groups like 764, Discord has come under fire in recent years for its use by far-right groups. The platform was used to plan the 2017 Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally and the Jan. 6 attack on the United States Capitol among others. Discord has also been criticized for user data privacy issues and user surveillance by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
Paxton has increasingly used his office to sue and investigate companies that he claims have failed to protect Texas minors, as well as attacking Big Tech companies. These lawsuits have served to bolster Paxton’s image as a no-holds-barred anti-establishment crusader, one he’s used to his advantage in his race to unseat Cornyn.
