Discord’s new content moderation tool will automatically block words and phrases

In an effort to help its own moderators out, Discord has developed a new automated content moderation tool.

Content moderation can be an exhausting, burnout-inducing task that requires community moderators to view upsetting content and then decide how best to handle such content and the user who posted it. Discord’s new tool, called AutoMod, is meant to help with that task.

AutoMod was announced via a blog post and is expected to “automatically detect, block, and alert moderators of messages containing harmful words or phrases before they’re posted.”

Community moderators can use AutoMod to help manage abusive content in their communities by setting up keyword filters (moderators can set up to three custom keyword filters and use a “Commonly Flagged Words” filter) to automatically filter out and flag content that contains abusive words. According to a separate blog post about AutoMod, moderators can create rules that include: A list of words for AutoMod to scan posts for, a designated automatic response action to be deployed once one of those words is detected, and the ability to exempt certain people from that rule.

AutoMod rules, like the one depicted above, let moderators choose an automatic response to a post that’s been flagged as containing one of the words listed on the wordlist. Responses include blocking the message from being posted, putting the offending user in timeout (which prevents them from joining voice channels or sending messages), or AutoMod can send moderators an alert about the offensive message to a designated channel.

Discord has grown quite a bit from its start as a chat and voice app for gamers. And that growth has produced sprawling, bustling online communities that can rival those of any other social media platform. But like its social media competitors, Discord also has to contend with abusive content, and relies on content moderators to help manage those issues in their Discord communities. Discord is also one of our recommended Twitter alternatives and this new feature, which seems like it will strengthen content moderation and safety, sounds like yet another reason why Discord belongs on that list.

The new AutoMod feature can be found in Discord’s Community servers within Server Settings and is currently available on MacOS, Windows, Linux, Android, iOS, and the Discord web app.