Why Discord is at the heart of a major classified documents leak

Users of the popular gaming platform Discord are being accused of a military intelligence breach after classified documents have been uploaded and spread widely on the internet. Steam helped to identify and arrest the person suspected of having uploaded these classified documents.

Jack Teixeira (21 years old) was arrested on Thursday by the FBI in relation to an investigation of a leak of classified documents which spread across social media in early April. According to The New York Times, Teixeira was a United States Guardsman in the intelligence division of Massachusetts Air National Guard. The Boston Police charged him on Friday in two separate counts for violating the Espionage Act. He is accused of unauthorized transmission and retention of national security information, and unauthorized removal of classified materials. BBC reported that Teixeira may face 15 years of prison.

AricToler of Bellingcat’s research and education director said Teixeira had posted images of the classified briefings in a Discord group called Thug Shaker Central. There, around two dozen teenagers shared racist memes while talking about video games and guns like Call of Duty or Halo. (Toler said on Twitter that Teixera’s Steam account, which led to him being identifiedShowed Arma 3,, Battlegrounds PUBG, Garry’s Mod, Counter-Strike” Hearts of Iron 4..)

U.S. Government officials have verified the authenticity of most of these documents. These include sensitive information regarding Canada, South Korea Israel Egypt, Israel and the Russian War on Ukraine. The documents contain information that dates back to February. They are therefore quite current. Teixeira posted documents dating back to December.

Bellingcat earlier reported that those documents had been on Discord, scattered across several servers, for many months. According to The Washington Post, Teixeira published the documents first on the Thug Shaker Central small server before another teenager from the group posted them on wow_mao’s separate Discord. Ten of the documents published were also posted on. MinecraftEarth Map server where the leaks spread to thousands and were later discovered on social media by U.S. authorities. Discord has been thrust into the limelight by this leak, which is usually associated with gaming communities.

Discord and the Leak

The company Discord has little to no involvement in this. Discord is a platform that allows people to run servers for free without requiring permission. Users use this tool for various reasons. Discord servers can be social hubs that are built around people and topics. Discord is used by some people to chat with friends and small groups while they play video games. Many servers consist of thousands members who are united by Twitch streaming or video games. Other servers have thousands of users united around individual Twitch streams or video games. MinecraftEarth Map, the server where classified documents ended, is a site with thousands of members who want to see high-quality images. Minecraft maps.

Discord as a platform, while largely associated with gamers, spread into the mainstream during the COVID-19 pandemic; it’s an easy, free way to keep in touch and share information with people. Discord claims to have 150 million users per month, and 19 million servers active each week. Text, video and voice chat are available on the chat platform. Users can livestream videos and media. Because the servers are largely private, it’s up to moderators and creators to regulate what goes on in their spaces. Discord can be a place for people to post offensive jokes or, worse, racist ideologies by teenagers who could cause tragedy in a Buffalo-area community.

Discord does enforce community guidelines to ensure the safety of its users, something it’s highlighted in transparency reports. Discord is still figuring out the best way to enforce rules proactively, rather than reacting. That’s how Teixeira was able to share so many documents online without much notice until they spread elsewhere; originally, he published the documents to a relatively small group. Members of the Thug Shaker Central Discord community, where Teixeira went by the handle “OG,” communed there because of their mutual interest in guns, video games, and military equipment, the Post reported.

Image: Discord

In an email statement sent to Polygon, Discord stated that the company has been cooperating with authorities and would continue to do so as long as the investigation goes on. Here is its full statement:

The individual who is accused of posting illegal classified materials on our platform has been arrested by law enforcement authorities. As the investigation proceeds, we remain dedicated to cooperating with authorities. Discord is committed to protecting the privacy of its users. However, we also believe that our platform will best serve all of us when we engage in responsible behavior online. Discord’s Terms of Service explicitly prohibit the use of Discord to commit crimes or for illegal purposes. This includes sharing documents that are verifiably classified.

When Discord’s Trust and Safety team learns of violative content, we act quickly to remove it. This time, we’ve banned those involved in the initial distribution of materials. We also deleted any content that violated our Terms. And, finally, we issued warnings for users who still share these materials.

What documents were leaked?

Originally, it was thought that the leak contained only information about Russia’s war on Ukraine, but there are other documents that include “sensitive briefing material on Canada, China, Israel and South Korea, in addition to the Indo-Pacific military theater and the Middle East,” according to The New York Times.

The Times provides a comprehensive breakdown of each document, which number at least 100. According to the newspaper, one document contains different scenarios about how the Russian War on Ukraine could be affected by the death of either Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The Times reported that the leak is seemingly a confirmation that “the United States spies on allies and adversaries alike,” which may impact the country’s relationship with its allies.

Other documents discuss South Korea’s apparent fear that the U.S. could “divert South Korean arms to Kyiv”; explore “scenarios that could lead Israel to provide weapons to Ukraine”; and suggest Israel’s foreign intelligence service “may have encouraged the agency’s staff and Israeli citizens to participate in the antigovernment protests that roiled the country in March,” per the Times story.

Several documents were later doctored to change information regarding the war in Ukraine — specifically, to inflate casualties in Ukraine and to lower them for Russia, according to the Times. The Pentagon hasn’t outright verified that they are authentic, but said that some “contain sensitive and highly classified material.” The Pentagon is still working through the documents, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told press.

It is impossible to verify the accuracy of intelligence contained in the documents. Department of Defense Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder said at a news conference Thursday that the breach was a violation of the United States’ security guidelines to keep sensitive information safe. “This was a deliberate criminal act,” he said.

President Biden told press Thursday that he was “not concerned” by the information disclosed from the leak, despite the top-secret nature of the documents. Still, the information from the leak required Teixeira to have top-secret clearance; the 102nd Intelligence Wing that Teixeira was assigned to is responsible for packaging “intelligence from various sources” for global senior military leaders, according to a CNN source. Teixeira wasn’t working directly with the intelligence, CNN said, but required the clearance to work on the networks the department used to store the information.

“People who sign agreements to be able to receive classified documents acknowledge the importance to the national security of not disclosing those documents — and we intend to send that message, how important it is to our national security,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said during a press conference on Friday.

What was the method used by authorities to locate this leaker?

We don’t yet know how the government found Teixeira, but the Times detailed the “trail of digital evidence” that linked the airman to the leaked documents. Leaked documents included many photos of printed pages, with details often visible in the background. The Times was able to find a Steam profile linked to Teixeira’s name; from there, it found an Instagram profile with photos of Teixeira’s childhood home. The counter shown in these photos matched that of the document leaked.

Kylie Cooper via Getty Images for The Washington Post

Several members of the Thug Shaker Central Discord group spoke to the press, but both the Times and the Post said the members didn’t give up Teixeira’s name.

The Associated Press said that new court documents revealed the FBI had used Discord billing records to locate Teixeira. The FBI got Teixeira’s Discord username from an unnamed source, the court documents said, which the person said started posting classified information around December. Teixeira’s name and address were both associated with his Discord account. Teixeira was arrested by the FBI on Thursday in North Dighton Massachusetts. The following day, he was charged in Boston.

What has this ever happened before?

The leak of military secrets on gaming forums is nothing new. The free-to play combat simulator is popular among fans. War Thunder Specifically, they are well-known for their leaks of information in order to resolve disputes between rival players. A misunderstanding between players led to a rift in January. War ThunderThe Fighting Falcon model, an F-16A jet fighter that was just added to the video game, had a user guide posted by a player. Someone posted information about the McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle a day later. A user leaked documents last year relating to Chinese anti-tank weapons. Before that, it was the United Kingdom’s Challenger 2 battle tank that was leaked, followed by the French Leclerc battle tank.

Eagle Dynamics, the developer of Digital Combat Simulator (DCS) games, was also criticized in 2019 after a Russian staffer who used the DCS World forums to request help with shipping F-16 Manuals from the U.S.A., was arrested and charged for conspiracy, as well as smuggling.