Discord is a great place to hang out despite its name meaning disagreement. Originally designed for gamers, the appeal spread to cover various people and hobbies worldwide. Whenever you get people together like this, problems can arise that you may not be able to handle on your own. This tutorial will show you how to handle toxicity and report someone on Discord.
Most Discord users are calm and sensible and want to hang out, chat, and discuss ideas and hobbies. You will always get one or two that want to spoil it for everyone, but those are thankfully rare on most servers. Other people will shut them down, or the channel admin will step in when it happens. On those rare occasions when that doesn’t happen, it’s up to that admin to take it further.
Reporting someone is usually a last resort. Channel admins can mute or kick toxic people from channels long before that happens. There may be extremes of behavior or situations when reporting is as much a duty of care to others as necessary.
Violating the Community Guidelines
To report someone on Discord, they must have broken a community guideline. Those guidelines are fairly clear and cover the majority of incidents likely to happen on the platform.
Most social platforms have guidelines, or standards users must follow to continue using the platform. If someone posts content that violates the rules Discord will ban their account and the IP address of their devices.
Discord’s guidelines are reasonably self-explanatory as they must abide by laws and protect the experience of other users. Anyone who sends explicit messages to minors or harasses another user will likely be banned from the service.
How to Report Another User
Discord will need the User ID, a link to the message(s) the person is being reported for, and the Server ID to action a report. Do not delete the messages from the person you’re reporting because you will need them for reporting.
Read: How To Block Someone on Discord
If you’re the channel admin, you need to do this:
- Click on the server you’re working with on the right-hand side of the interface
- Navigate to Settings and Appearances to turn on Developer Mode.
- Right-click the user and select Copy ID for the User ID.
- Paste it somewhere safe.
- Select the three dots to the right of your reporting message and Copy Link.
- Paste it somewhere safe.
- Right-click your server name in the channel list and select Copy ID.
- Paste it somewhere safe.
- Visit this link and add all the information necessary to the report request.
The Discord Trust & Safety team will investigate your report and go from there.
If you aren’t an Admin, you can still report user content by visiting the Discord Support page. You will need screenshots and any information about the user to submit this report.
Reporting is the last resort but is sometimes necessary for the more toxic or relentless people on a server. You have other options as an admin, such as the kick or ban. You could use either of these as well as reporting as long as you don’t delete the message being reported.
Kick someone on Discord
You need to be the admin to kick someone from a Discord channel. Once done, the person will be removed from the channel. They can rejoin only once you or someone with the correct privileges permits them.
- Select the correct channel within Discord.
- Select the user from the user list.
- Right-click their username and select Kick.
- Select Kick again to confirm.
The Kick option will have the user’s name beside it to avoid mistakes. Once kicked, they will be removed from the server and unable to return until you allow them to return.
Aside from admins, some users will be privileged to bring the person back. If you suspect that might happen, add something into your channel terms about consulting admins first or talk directly to your users to avoid it.
Ban someone on Discord
Kicking protects your channel from toxicity, but if that person has friends within the channel, they could soon reappear. Then you bring the banhammer and block them for good. You will need to be the channel owner or admin to do this.
- Select the channel the user is in.
- Select the user from the list.
- Right-click their username and select Ban.
- Select Ban again to confirm.
Like the Kick, Ban will have the username beside it to avoid making a mistake. This time, only the channel owner or admin can lift the ban. If the person has a friend with admin rights, it might be a good time to remove those rights or chat with that person about allowing them back.
Discord is generally a great place to be and, aside from the usual banter, is a positive place for like-minded people to hang out. If your channel does suffer from toxicity or a generally annoying user, you have the tools to manage it. Don’t be afraid to use those tools for the good of your channel!
What Happens When You Report Someone
If you’re looking for justice, you’d be wary to know that it’s not necessarily guaranteed. As stated above, the messages and content would have to violate Discord’s community guidelines.
Another issue occurs when someone deletes the message before you can report it. Recovering deleted messages in Discord isn’t possible unless you have a bot installed or you’ve captured a screenshot of the content. If you are diligent (and quick enough) to capture the message, you can send the screenshot to the Support Team.
If it is determined that your report is justified, Discord will ban the users’ account and their IP addresses. Don’t be surprised if the same user reappears; bypassing the IP ban is possible (and fairly easy). Someone banned from Discord may simply create a new account and rejoin your servers. Hopefully, they will behave when they get back on, though.
