Pentagon leaks: Behind the veil of Discord platform where US secrets were exposed
The leaking of US intelligence documents which has exposed highly classified information about the war in Ukraine reportedly began on a gaming platform.
The documents that have left the Pentagon scrambling for answers were shared on a range of social media sites and are believed to have originated from a private group on Discord. Members claim they were never meant to be made public.
Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the US Air National Guard, was arrested over the leaks.
But what is Discord, who are its users and does it have links to the far-right?
Just another gaming app?
Discord started in 2015 as an online hangout for gamers and a social tool. It grew during the COVID pandemic as a forum for its mostly 18 to 24-year-old users to gossip or even help each other with homework.
Players can create or join “servers” both public and private, where people can meet and hang out, chatting via text, video, or voice.
Private “invite only” servers can also be created. Each server can be broken down into channels for specific topics.
More than 150 million people visit Discord every month, according to co-founder and chief executive Jason Citron.
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The company hosts 21,000 servers – the vast majority of which are dedicated to gaming with others focused on topics like entertainment and music.
Who uses Discord?
Psychologist and director of the International Gaming Research Unit, Mark Griffiths, says Discord initially started with discussions about gaming strategy but has since evolved.
“Gamers, particularly young, male gamers might go online to find an audience that may actually listen to them. The people on these groups – their core identity is gaming – because of the amount of time they spend on it,” he said.
Discord is most popular with men aged 18-24.
Around 38% of its web users and nearly half of its Android app users are from Generation Z and they are roughly 75% male, according digital intelligence platform, Similarweb.
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Who is Jack Teixeira?
What do the documents say and how did they get out?
It is a “completely anonymous” and “very male platform,” said human behaviour technologist and psychotherapist Catherine Knipps.
She said: “You easily can make up a random username and make a false identity. As humans, we’re always looking for connection.”
She adds that a sense of belonging is “so important” and “people will adopt new personalities online for the sake of fitting in with their communities”.
Jack Teixeira has been arrested over the Pentagon leaks
Who is the ‘OG’ and what’s Thug Shaker Central?
Some of the leaks are believed to have started on Discord.
Roughly two dozen users in a reportedly private chat group called Thug Shaker Central talked about their favourite guns and shared memes and jokes – some of which were racist. The group also discussed wars including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Teixeira, who went by the handle, OG, reportedly drew admiration from the group’s mostly young members. He was identified by the New York Times as the leading figure in the chat group.
‘Documents were never meant to leave the group’
In interviews with the paper, members of the group said it started out as a place where young men would gather to talk about their love of guns and play war-themed video games.
They claimed the secret documents they discussed were meant to be purely informative and were never meant to leave the group.
They also said they saw Teixeira as the group’s unofficial leader, claiming he wanted to teach younger members about the realities of war.
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But the documents gained more attention after one of the members posted them on a public forum.
In a company statement, Discord said it is cooperating with law enforcement and “as this remains an active investigation, we cannot provide further comment at this time”.
How were the documents leaked and where did they go?
According to the New York Times, Teixeira began posting original documents from October to March, with a member of the group claiming the airman posted around 350 documents.
The paper reports that on 2 March, a member of the private group known as “Lucca” was involved in a conversation about the Ukraine war in a public Discord group where he published several dozen documents.
On 5 April, according to investigative website Bellingcat, the documents started circulating through pro-Russian Telegram channels and on 4chan.
Connection with the far-right?
This is not the first time Discord has been embroiled in controversy.
In 2017, white supremacists used the platform to plan the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville where a counter protester was killed.
Following the rally, Discord closed a number of accounts associated with the events in Charlottesville and said it would “continue to take action” against white supremacy and all forms of hate.
Then in May 2022, a white teenager posted racist memes and recorded his thoughts on Discord before shooting 10 people dead at a grocery store in Buffalo.
The details, kept on a private group, included months of racist, anti-semitic entries along with step-by-step descriptions of the teenager’s assault plans. Discord said 15 users would have had access to entries before the attack. There was no evidence anyone saw them before then.
The platform said it removed the details and banned the teeanger’s account as soon as it became aware of them. The company said it also took steps to prevent content related to the attack from spreading.
There are no survivors from a factory explosion that ripped through a munitions plant in rural Tennessee, police have confirmed.
Eighteen people were missing after the huge blast, but Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis has now confirmed all died.
It happened on Friday morning at Accurate Energetic Systems, a company which supplies and researches explosives for the military.
Officers guard the gate at Accurate Energetic Systems military explosives plant. Pic: Reuters
It scattered debris over at least half a mile (800m) and was felt by residents more than 15 miles (24km) away, Mr Davis said.
Aerial footage showed the company’s hilltop location smouldering and obliterated by smoke for much of Friday, with just a mass of twisted metal, burned-out shells of cars, and an array of debris left behind.
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Emergency services have been unable to fully attend the site due to secondary blasts.
Mr Davis described it as one of the worst scenes he had ever seen.
“What we need right now is we need our communities to come together and understand that we’ve lost a lot of people,” he said.
The cause of the blast, which occurred about 60 miles southwest of Nashville, is not yet known but Mr Davis said it could be days, weeks or even months before foul play is ruled out.
Guy McCormick, a supervisory special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said experts need to make the area safe before specialist investigators begin combing through the remains.
He said the safety and security of the scene could change quickly because of the heat and pressure caused by the explosion.
Signs near the site on Saturday asked for prayers for the families.
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Terry Bagsby, 68, who works at a petrol station nearby, said people in the close-knit community were “very, very sad”.
“I don’t know how to explain it… Just a lot of grief,” he added.
Actress Diane Keaton, who starred in films including The Godfather and Annie Hall, has died aged 79.
Keaton’s daughter, Dexter Keaton White, confirmed her death to Sky’s US partner network NBC News.
With a long career, across a series of movies that are regarded as some of the best ever made, Keaton was widely admired.
She was awarded an Oscar, a BAFTA and two Golden Globe Awards, and was also nominated for two Emmys, and a Tony, as well as picking up a series of other Academy Award and BAFTA nominations.
Diane Keaton, with her best actress Oscar for Annie Hall in 1978. Pic: AP
Her best actress Oscar was for the Woody Allen film Annie Hall which is said to be loosely based on her life.
She appeared in several other Allen projects, including Manhattan, as well as all three Godfather movies, in which she played Kay, the wife and then ex-wife of Marlon Brando’s son Michael Corleone, played by Al Pacino, opposite him as he descends into a life of crime and replaces his father in the family’s mafia empire.
With Woody Allen in 1978. Pic: Adam Scull/PHOTOlink.net/AP
Keaton was the kind of actor who helped make films iconic and timeless, from her heartbreaking turn as Kay Adams-Corleone to the “La-dee-da, la-dee-da” phrasing as Annie Hall, bedecked in the now famous necktie, bowler hat, vest and khakis.
Keaton also frequently worked with Nancy Meyers, starting with 1987’s Baby Boom.
Their other films together included 1991’s Father Of The Bride and its 1995 sequel, as well as 2003’s Something’s Gotta Give.
In 1996, she starred opposite Goldie Hawn and Bette Midler in The First Wives Club, about three women whose husbands had left them for younger women.
Keaton (centre) with Goldie Hawn (L) and Bette Midler at the premiere of The First Wives Club in 1996. Pic: AP
More recently, she collaborated with Jane Fonda, Mary Steenburgen and Candice Bergen on the Book Club films.
‘Brilliant, beautiful’
Diane Keaton. Pic: AP
The unexpected news was met with shock around the world.
Her First Wives Club co-star Midler wrote on Instagram: “The brilliant, beautiful, extraordinary Diane Keaton has died. I cannot tell you how unbearably sad this makes me.
“She was hilarious, a complete original, and completely without guile, or any of the competitiveness one would have expected from such a star. What you saw was who she was … oh, la, lala!”
Actor Ben Stiller paid tribute on X, writing: “Diane Keaton. One of the greatest film actors ever. An icon of style, humor and comedy. Brilliant. What a person.”
Kate Hudson, whose mother is Goldie Hawn, posted simply: “We love you so much Diane.”
In her Instagram tribute, Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony award-winning actress and producer Viola Davis said: “No!! No!!! No!! God, not yet, NO!!! Man… you defined womanhood.
“The pathos, humor, levity, your ever-present youthfulness and vulnerability – you tattooed your SOUL into every role, making it impossible to imagine anyone else inhabiting them.
“You were undeniably, unapologetically YOU!!! Loved you. Man… rest well. God bless your family, and I know angels are flying you home.”
Keaton never married. She adopted her daughter Dexter in 1996 and a son, Duke, four years later.
Donald Trump has announced the US will impose an additional 100% tariff on China imports, accusing it of taking an “extraordinarily aggressive position” on trade.
In a post to his Truth Social platform on Friday, the US president said Beijing had sent an “extremely hostile letter to the world” and imposed “large-scale export controls on virtually every product they make”.
Mr Trump, who warned the additional tariffs would start on 1 November, said the US would also impose export controls on all critical software to China.
The president added that he was imposing the tariffs because of export controls placed on rare earths by China.
He wrote: “Based on the fact that China has taken this unprecedented position, and speaking only for the USA, and not other nations who were similarly threatened, starting November 1st, 2025 (or sooner, depending on any further actions or changes taken by China), the United States of America will impose a tariff of 100% on China, over and above any tariff that they are currently paying.
“It is impossible to believe that China would have taken such an action, but they have, and the rest is history. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
President Trump says he sees no reason to see President Xi as part of a trip to South Korea. Pic: Reuters
Mr Trump said earlier on Friday that there “seems to be no reason” to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in a scheduled meeting as part of an upcoming trip to South Korea at the end of this month.
He had posted: “I was to meet President Xi in two weeks, at APEC, in South Korea, but now there seems no reason to do so.”
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The trip was scheduled to include a stop in Malaysia, which is hosting the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit, a stop in Japan and then the stop to South Korea, where Mr Trump would meet Mr Xi ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
Mr Trump added: “There are many other countermeasures that are, likewise, under serious consideration.”
The move signalled the biggest rupture in relations in six months between Beijing and Washington – the world’s biggest
factory and its biggest consumer.
It also threatens to escalate tensions between the two countries, prompting fears over the stability of the global economy.
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Friday was Wall Street’s worst day since April, with the S&P 500 falling 2.7%, owing to fears about US-China relations.
China had restricted the access to rare earths ahead of the meeting between Presidents Trump and Xi.
Under the restrictions, Beijing would require foreign companies to get special approval for shipping the metallic elements abroad.
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