Discord accidentally banned over 8,000 people for posting grids and other ‘benign’ images

A Reddit users says they were banned on Discord after uploading this picture of a chessboard. | Image: u/Laskof via Reddit

Discord says a bug affecting its safety system caused it to mistakenly ban more than 8,000 accounts since May. The platform's statement follows a wave of reports from users over the past week, who say they've been banned for posting images containing grids, such as chessboards, game textures, and even Minecraft inventories.

Stanislav Vishnevskiy, Discord cofounder and chief technology officer, writes that the bug impacted around 200 users who posted "grid-like" pictures, in addition to about 8,000 people who posted "other benign images" since May 2026. "Everyone affected has now been unbanned," Vishnevskiy says.

In a thread on X, Disco ...

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