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 … Read the full story at The Verge.