The UK government joins Discord, is instantly met with trolling and abuse
His Majesty’s (HM) Treasury—aka the government’s economic and finance ministry—recently decided to join the gen Z social app, Discord. Now, you might be thinking to yourself: ‘Who in their right mind would pitch an idea like this in the first place?’. If so, don’t worry, we’re wondering the exact same thing. In what seems to be a desperate last-ditch effort to grow support for the already struggling party, Tories have branched out with a ‘Read-Only’ Discord server. Oh dear…
Apart from the UK government’s clear lack of self-awareness, The Guardian also highlighted the fact that current fears over Twitter’s stability and future might be to blame for this seemingly random and sudden HM Treasury server, which now sports 29,103 members and counting.
For those of you who don’t know,, Discord is the evolution of the Internet Relay Chat (IRC)—a space for communities and friends to keep up to date with each other, as well as track events, send memes, and voice chat with other users. Once aimed solely at gamers, it now markets itself to a wide range of audiences, from pop culture enthusiasts to university course chats and societies. Recently however, the community-based platform is being chased by the likes of brands and government bodies.
In HM Treasury’s case, users didn’t take kindly to the new government server and have since launched a full-blown counterattack in true Discord fashion. The server being ‘Read-Only’ prompted users to retaliate with explicit and government-damning name changes as well as emoji reactions to channel posts.
One of the most notable things on the server, however, is just how much support there is for trans rights. A lot of the user attacks are hyper-critical of the government and the types of people it tries to protect—*cough* Prince Andrew *cough*—but are also trying to bolster support for LGBTQIA+ rights in a space for a government that isn’t exactly known for its compassion and tolerance.
Whoever done the second one was genius 😭 pic.twitter.com/GiomgNZP1b
— ׂׂૢ༘ Rebecca Peters (@skephysics) November 15, 2022
We can’t quite figure out why they thought this was going to play, but honestly, any opportunity to see our current governing body humiliated is a good one. The screenshots really speak for themselves:
HM Treasury started an official discord and it is going exactly as well as you expect pic.twitter.com/HVTZD0IrUp
— 𝐏𝐇𝐈𝐋 (@allcaps_PHIL) November 15, 2022
Although the server’s administrators initially removed emoji reactions after the uproar, it seems like they have since reinstated them, notably with the full explicit “c*nt” reaction missing. An error on Discord’s part, they alleged. Riiight.
One could say that freedom of speech—or perhaps freedom of reaction—is important to the great minds behind the Discord server. As explicit names and inflammatory emoji reactions continue to pour in, we like to think of these as symbols of hope as we near the end of the conservative nightmare Brits have been living in for the past three years. A gentle reminder that no government is safe from public criticism—especially a Tory government.
