Discord accidentally banned over 8,000 people for posting grids and other ‘benign’ images
Summary
Discord's safety system bug caused over 8,000 accounts to be mistakenly banned for posting benign images like grids and chessboards. The bug has been fixed and all affected accounts unbanned.
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<img alt="A screenshot of a chessboard someone uploaded to Discord" data-caption="A Reddit users says they were banned on Discord after uploading this picture of a chessboard. | Image: u/Laskof via <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/BannedFromDiscord/comments/1ulrqcu/uploaded_a_photo_of_a_chess_board_and_got/">Reddit</a>" data-portal-copyright="Image: u/Laskof via <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/BannedFromDiscord/comments/1ulrqcu/uploaded_a_photo_of_a_chess_board_and_got/">Reddit</a>" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/discord-chess-ban.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0,0,100,100" />
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A Reddit users says they were banned on Discord after uploading this picture of a chessboard. | Image: u/Laskof via <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/BannedFromDiscord/comments/1ulrqcu/uploaded_a_photo_of_a_chess_board_and_got/">Reddit</a> </figcaption>
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<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Discord says a bug affecting its safety system caused it to mistakenly ban more than 8,000 accounts since May. The <a href="https://x.com/discord_support/status/2074282860123767135?s=20">platform's statement</a> follows a wave of reports from users over the past week, who say they've been banned for posting images containing grids, <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/BannedFromDiscord/comments/1ummsmj/comment/ow1a9n3/?context=3">such as</a> <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/BannedFromDiscord/comments/1ulrqcu/uploaded_a_photo_of_a_chess_board_and_got/">chessboards</a>, <a href="https://x.com/jdbryantdev/status/2073437675038630298">game textures</a>, and even <a href="http://reddit.com/r/BannedFromDiscord/comments/1ulyto3/got_banned_for_a_minecraft_item_trading_message/"><em>Minecraft</em> inventories</a>.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Stanislav Vishnevskiy, Discord cofounder and chief technology officer, <a href="https://x.com/svishnevskiy/status/2074285318073913375?s=20">writes that the bug</a> 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.</p>
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<div class="iframely-embed"><div class="iframely-responsive"><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/BannedFromDiscord/comments/1umqgo2/grid_banned_for_posting_a_game_texture/" data-iframely-url="https://iframely.net/api/iframe?maxheight=750&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2FBannedFromDiscord%2Fcomments%2F1umqgo2%2Fgrid_banned_for_posting_a_game_texture%2F&key=a95589c51263af39f0de8ef8737db4f3"></a></div></div>
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<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In <a href="https://x.com/discord_support/status/2074282860123767135?s=20">a thread on X</a>, Disco …</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theverge.com/games/962156/discord-accidental-bans-grid-images">Read the full story at The Verge.</a></p>
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Cached at: 07/07/26, 05:12 PM
# Discord accidentally banned over 8,000 people for posting grids and other ‘benign’ images
Source: [https://www.theverge.com/games/962156/discord-accidental-bans-grid-images](https://www.theverge.com/games/962156/discord-accidental-bans-grid-images)
[](https://www.theverge.com/authors/emma-roth)
Emma Roth
is a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more\. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO\.
Discord says a bug affecting its safety system caused it to mistakenly ban more than 8,000 accounts since May\. The[platform’s statement](https://x.com/discord_support/status/2074282860123767135?s=20)follows a wave of reports from users over the past week, who say they’ve been banned for posting images containing grids,[such as](https://www.reddit.com/r/BannedFromDiscord/comments/1ummsmj/comment/ow1a9n3/?context=3)[chessboards](https://www.reddit.com/r/BannedFromDiscord/comments/1ulrqcu/uploaded_a_photo_of_a_chess_board_and_got/),[game textures](https://x.com/jdbryantdev/status/2073437675038630298), and even[*Minecraft*inventories](http://reddit.com/r/BannedFromDiscord/comments/1ulyto3/got_banned_for_a_minecraft_item_trading_message/)\.
Stanislav Vishnevskiy, Discord cofounder and chief technology officer,[writes that the bug](https://x.com/svishnevskiy/status/2074285318073913375?s=20)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](https://x.com/discord_support/status/2074282860123767135?s=20), Discord writes that its safety system is designed to flag content by “matching it against known harmful material\.” This system can produce “false positives,” Discord explains, which is when an employee would step in to review the flagged content\. But instead of just temporarily preventing the account from uploading content during the review, a glitch led its system to ban users entirely\.
“When our staff reviewed and cleared those accounts, the same bug prevented the ban from being lifted automatically, so it just stayed in place,” Discord says\.
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- Emma Roth
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