Zach Davis

Building communities | prev: @rap @buymeacoffee

[Zach Davis @ItsZachDavis]

This seems like it could break the EU Digital Services Act.

Platforms are supposed to give users a real way to challenge account restrictions and moderation decisions. If Roblox is auto-rejecting appeals, refusing human review, or cutting people off after 30 days with no meaningful complaint process, that feels very questionable under the DSA.

[Zach Davis @ItsZachDavis]

@PowerGPU My friends said buying a PC isn’t considered an “investment” 🤣

I’d like to revisit that conversation

[Zach Davis @ItsZachDavis]

I bought my new PC from @PowerGPU in Sept. 2025, and comparing my invoice to today’s prices is wild.

Very, very glad I bought when I did.

AMD 9950X3D: $750 → $700
G.SKILL 64GB DDR5-6000 RAM: $270 → $1,000
MSI RTX 5090 32GB Trio: $3,500 → $4,200
Samsung 990 Pro 2TB SSD: $210 → $640

PC part pricing is brutal right now.

[Dexerto @Dexerto]

The Steam Deck OLED models have been restocked, but Valve has increased the prices:

512GB OLED: $789 USD (+$240)
1TB OLED: $949 USD (+$300)

[Zach Davis @ItsZachDavis]

@teamfreeschlep You should make a map of where Discord is banned

[Zach Davis @ItsZachDavis]

I agree that parents have responsibility and should be involved in what platforms their kids use. I don’t think anyone is saying Discord should replace parenting.

But I don’t think the car manufacturer analogy really works here - and honestly, even if we use that analogy, it still doesn’t help Discord’s case.

When we discover safety issues in cars, we don’t just say “well, parents should drive better” or “people should supervise their kids better.” We require safety testing. We have safety standards. We have defect reporting. We do recalls. If a manufacturer knows about a dangerous defect and fails to act, they can absolutely be held responsible.

That’s the point here. This isn’t just “a bad person used Discord.” The issue is whether Discord had repeated warning signs, known abusive networks, and obvious safety gaps - and still failed to act effectively.

For example, Emir’s investigation identified 15,056 unique users across 63 illegal servers and found that 5,695 of them had at least one prior violation recorded: https://t.co/1iIe2Os5qc

Separately, Discord DSA Lookup data has shown accounts with extreme repeat enforcement histories, including one example with 248 recorded child safety violations.

That matters because it suggests this is not only about isolated bad actors. It is about repeat signals, repeat offenders, and whether Discord’s enforcement systems are actually removing dangerous users and communities fast enough.

Parents should absolutely do more. But Discord also has a responsibility to do the basics: accessible abuse reporting, actual human review, meaningful enforcement against repeat offenders, stronger safety defaults for minors, and faster action against abusive servers.

And honestly, you can see the neglect in basic everyday use. When’s the last time you tried contacting Discord support? Did they adequately address your issue in a timely way? Did you get a real human response, or did you get an automated reply - or no meaningful reply at all?

Or go to Discord right now on Desktop/Web and right click a server. You can’t even directly report the server for abuse from there.

And this matters even more because Discord also removed older support/reporting paths people used for years to report abuse, while normal support often tells users they don’t handle abuse reports through that channel.

So what is the actual path supposed to be? If users can’t easily report an abusive server from Desktop/Web, and support won’t handle abuse through tickets, why is such basic safety infrastructure still this fragmented on a platform of Discord’s size?

That’s the problem. Not that Discord is expected to be a parent, but that Discord has failed to invest in the basic safety infrastructure a platform with millions of users, including minors, should have had years ago.

[Zach Davis @ItsZachDavis]

I think that sub header may be mistyped tbh, as later stated in the article:

"Tested by Chinese tech reviewer Chaowanke, the card ran 3DMark benchmarks well, achieving almost the same scores as the RTX 3060 in several tests. The RTX 4060, Intel Arc B580, and AMD RX 6600 XT all blew it away, but it was able to run the benchmarks and deliver playable-like performance."

[Zach Davis @ItsZachDavis]

I don’t think most people realize what @Discord’s Age Verification push may really be about.

Discord is not legally required to roll this out globally, yet they are moving toward it anyway. I think there are two major incentives people are overlooking:

1) Advertising / demographic targeting

When you open Discord Quests information, Discord says one reason you may see a Quest is your age.

That raises a fair question: how does Discord know your age?

If that age signal comes from Age Estimation, then Discord is using inferred age data as part of its ad/promotional targeting system. That is very different from presenting Age Estimation as purely a user-safety feature.

And if this was implemented before Discord publicly framed Age Verification as a safety initiative, then users deserve a much clearer explanation of how their age is being inferred, what data is used, and whether that data is used for ads, promotions, or personalization.

2) Legal liability

A common argument in lawsuits against platforms like @Discord and @Roblox is that they did not do enough to gate minors from unsafe spaces, especially when relying mostly on a simple date-of-birth selector.

Now these same platforms are moving toward Age / ID Verification systems.

The irony is that years of weak safety investment by major platforms may be helping create the political pressure for invasive age-verification laws - laws that may not actually solve the underlying safety problems.

And once platforms adopt stronger verification, they may also be able to argue in court that they “did their part” and shift more blame onto children, parents, or users.

The real solution is not just scanning IDs or estimating ages.

The real solution is platforms genuinely investing in safety: human support, stronger moderation systems, better reporting, faster enforcement, proactive risk detection, and leadership that treats Trust & Safety as core infrastructure - not a cost center to automate, outsource, or cut.

In my opinion, when companies knowingly neglect user safety for years while profiting from massive youth audiences, boards and executives should face far more personal accountability.

Age verification should not become a shield for platforms that failed to invest in real safety.

#OnlineSafety #AgeVerification

[Zach Davis @ItsZachDavis]

@PalmerLuckey anduril is pretty fucking cool 😎

[Zach Davis @ItsZachDavis]

never forget who we fought alongside in battlefield 1 and battlefield 5 chat

🇺🇸🤝🇬🇧

[Fox News @FoxNews]

NOW: King Charles III and Queen Camilla lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery to honor America’s fallen service members.

[JACK ANDERTON @JACKGUYANDERTON]

Banning under-16s from social media isn’t about safety, it’s about control.

It’s about stopping millions of young people from ever seeing right-wing anti-establishment ideas.

The only party fighting for free speech is Reform UK.

My full speech at @Prosperity_Inst.

[Zach Davis @ItsZachDavis]

@octal @NetChoice has been doing great work recently

[Zach Davis @ItsZachDavis]

@EFF I guess I no longer have a way to stay up to date with your work then now 🙁

[Zach Davis @ItsZachDavis]

@Vesper_2005

[Zach Davis @ItsZachDavis]

discord really about to have egangsters pulling up to target buying nitro gift cards for their ekittens

[Discord Previews @DiscordPreviews]

Discord is working on a Gift Card system.
Users will be able to redeem gift cards on Discord in order to purchase Nitro or get profile items from the Shop.

[Zach Davis @ItsZachDavis]

@Paul_Taske Huge win, grateful for your work on this! 🙏

[baby keem @babykeem]

how do u fix openclaw internal reasoning leaking

[Zach Davis @ItsZachDavis]

@ufobri to be frank... who is frank? 🤔

[Zach Davis @ItsZachDavis]

to be frank... who is frank? 🤔

[bri ˚꩜｡⋆₊⊹ @ufobri]

why do people say “they got off scott free” who the fuck is scott

[Zach Davis @ItsZachDavis]

discord is working on a new subscription tier called squad

it’s enterprise pricing for egangsters in polycule relationships to financially support up to 6 ekittens

[Discord Previews @DiscordPreviews]

The monthly price for Discord Nitro Squads will be $25.99, making it $4.33 per person if all six slots are filled. All members will receive the same perks as the $10 Nitro plan, except for the two server boosts. Currently, there seem to be no plans for a yearly subscription.