How to Report a Discord Server

Whatever your reasons are, reporting an entire community isn’t as straightforward on Discord as it is on other platforms. While it’s doable, there are a few things you need to consider and prepare first before filing a complaint.

Below, I made a brief, easy-to-follow guide on how you can report a Discord server and when you should do it.

Before we get into the step-by-step tutorial on filing a report against a server and sending it to the platform mods, know that Discord takes reports seriously. Keep in mind these three things:

• Only report a server or a user if they violated Discord Community Guidelines. So, make a report only when the entire server itself broke any of those rules. If there was only one or a few violating the rule, and the majority of the users are innocent or condone the act, report the people involved instead.
• Additionally, make sure that the server and the people involved have actually violated the community guidelines. Remember that Discord will still conduct an investigation to see if the complaints have any basis. If you filed a report and Discord finds out no rule-breaking had actually happened, this could backfire on you. You can read the next section of this article to help you decide when should you report a Discord server, or take other actions.
• Finally, when filing a report on Discord, make sure you’ve got enough pieces of evidence to back your case up. More on that later.

Reporting a Discord server has three major stages:

1. Enabling Developer Mode so you will have access to the necessary links and IDs
2. Gathering and preparing evidence
3. Submitting a report

I’ll walk you through these stages one by one.

Note: Even though you can also report a Discord server using your mobile device, I recommend using the desktop app to make everything easier.

Enabling Developer Mode

On other platforms, attaching screenshots can normally help in strengthening your case. However, with Discord, screenshots are not enough because they can be easily altered. You need to secure stronger pieces of evidence to back up your claims, such as message links, the user ID of the person involved, and the server ID.

Unless you enabled Developer Mode on Discord, you won’t be able to see the server and user ID. To get access to those, you need to turn on Developer Mode in the user settings.

If you’ve turned on Developer Mode already, skip this stage and proceed to the next one. If not, here’s how you can enable Developer Mode on Discord.

1. Step 1

   Launch the Discord desktop app.

2. Step 2

   Find the cogwheel or gear icon beside your username to access “User Settings”. You can find this button at the bottom, near the “Mute” and “Deafen” options.

3. Step 3

   On the “User Settings” page, scroll down to find App Settings>Advanced.

4. Step 4

   

   Toggle on “Developer Mode” to enable it.

Gathering and preparing evidence

Now, you’re ready to gather and compile evidence that the server seriously violated Discord’s Community Guidelines.

I’ve mentioned that while you can include screenshots in your report, the best proof you can give is the links to the messages that contain the violations and offenses done by the server. This will make it easier for the Support Team at Discord to investigate the issue and it will strengthen your report. Do your best to copy the message links before they get deleted because once it’s gone, Discord wouldn’t be able to retrieve them. Aside from the message link, get the user IDs of the people involved and the ID of the offending server.

Before going to copy message links and IDs, open a Word document, Notepad, or Sticky Note on the side to make everything easier.

Here are some brief guides on how you can obtain these three.

Message Links

1. Step 1

   Find the offending message on that Discord server. Hover your mouse pointer on the message and click the three dots icon.

2. Step 2

   

   On the drop-down menu, click Copy Message Link.

3. Step 3

   Paste the message link on a separate document or notepad.

Remember to get as many message links as you can. Try to obtain 3 to 5 message links, if possible. The more evidence you gather, the better.

User ID

1. Step 1

   Right-click on the profile picture of the Discord user involved.

2. Step 2

   

   Select “Copy ID” on the menu.

3. Step 3

   Paste it on the notepad or word document. Remember to copy all the IDs of every Discord user involved, if that’s possible. User IDs are a string of numbers, so make sure to note the username, too.

Server ID

1. Step 1

   On the left side of the screen, you will see the list of all the servers you have joined. Right-click on the one you will report.

2. Step 2

   

   Select “Copy ID” at the bottom of the menu.

3. Step 3

   Paste the server ID on the notepad or word document where you saved the other info you’ve gathered so far. If you are reporting multiple servers, you will have to copy each of its IDs, as well as the message links and user IDs. Server IDs are a string of numbers, so make sure to note the server name, too.

Submitting a report

Once you’ve gathered enough evidence and are ready to send them, it’s time to submit a report to Discord.

1. Step 1

   Go to Discord’s Support Page to submit a request.

2. Step 2

   Fill out the form and give the Discord Support Team all the necessary details. You will be asked the following questions:

   What can we help you with?

   For this section, choose Trust and Safety as the category of your report.

   Your email address

   Make sure to include the email address of your Discord account. This will also help Discord’s Trust and Safety Team to get back to you and give you updates about your report.

   How can we help?

   Trust and Safety have four subcategories: abuse or harassment; spam; other issues; and appeals, age update, and other issues. Select the one relevant to your report.

   Subject

   Choose the subject of your report. This will depend on the reason why you reported a Discord server, such as harassment, spam messages, IP violation, or others. Read the next section of this article to find out when to report a Discord server.

   Description

   Here, you will have to give reasons for reporting the server and a description of what the violations are. If you want, you can also include here all the links and IDs you copied earlier. Additionally, you can also write a brief explanation of the incident.

   Attachments(optional)

   Attach the document or text file where you pasted the links and IDs. If you have other proofs such as screenshots, add them here.

3. Step 3

   

   Click “Submit”.

You have successfully submitted a report to Discord. Discord will review it and conduct an investigation. All you have to do is to wait until Discord gets back to you.

Here’s a list of things that are strictly not allowed on Discord and can be grounds for submitting a report. Report a server if it commits any of the following violations:

1. Harassment
2. Hate speech against a person’s race, national origin, ethnicity, gender, sex, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, or disabilities.
3. Threatening or doxxing other users.
4. Servers or multiple users on a server that continuously evade user blocks or server bans.
5. Spreading viruses and malware.
6. NSFW content in SFW channels.
7. Child pornography and sexualizing minors in any way. Besides informing Discord about this, you can also report illegal content to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
8. Sharing sexually explicit content of others without their consent in an attempt to shame them.
9. Sharing content that glorifies or promotes self-harm and suicide.
10. Sharing images of sadistic gore or animal cruelty.
11. Servers that organize, promote, or support violent extremism.
12. Servers that sell or facilitate the sales of prohibited or potentially dangerous goods such as drugs, ammunition, and firearms.
13. Servers that distribute or allow access to content involving the hacking, cracking, or distribution of pirated software or stolen accounts.
14. Basically, any server that promotes, encourages or engages in any illegal behavior.

You can read more of Discord’s Community Guidelines here.

Have you reported a Discord server by mistake? Or perhaps you were able to talk to the Discord server owners and they straightened out the problem by kicking the offending parties? No matter what your reasons are if you’re considering retracting a report, you must do it as soon as you can. False reports or anything similar can get you into trouble with Discord as it’s also a violation itself. Here are some options you can do:

• Submit another report to the Discord Support Team, telling them you are canceling the prior report, and explaining the situation.
• Send a Direct Message to Discord’s Twitter page and briefly explain the situation. Include in your message the email you used to send the report.

As much as possible, reporting a Discord server should be your last resort. Avoid reporting an entire server especially if there is only one or a few people involved. Here are some things you can do instead of reporting the server.

• Talk to the server owners. They have the power to ban or kick the offending parties. However, if the server owner, admins, and mods are directly involved, by all means, report the server.
• If you are one of the admins or you own the server yourself, issue the offending members a warning. However, if they refuse to follow orders, kick or ban them.
• Mute or block those users.
• Leave the server. But, if you find that the violations they committed are too serious to be ignored or are already against the law, it’s best to report it to Discord.