Discord is a platform loved and used by people of every age. When you become part of any community, you must put yourself in other shoes before posting any content.
Your content can contain things that might be offensive or insensitive for some people or inappropriate for the younger ones. It is imperative to be prudent enough to understand the differences.
Most Discord communities have explicit guidelines that every member must follow to maintain decorum.
Being the moderator, you have an added responsibility to prevent inappropriate or abusive language in your community to foster positivity. Here, we can help you to filter out and censor inappropriate words in your community.
You can use Discord’s AutoMod filters to block messages containing specific keywords and phrases, spam content, or commonly flagged words. Similarly, you can use bots to ban inappropriate words. Additionally, you can use spoiler tags on images or blackout text containing offensive material.
Let us walk you through how you can block offensive or inappropriate language on your server.
How To Filter Content on Discord?
Discord has been growing exponentially, with more and more people joining the platform to hang out with friends, play games, or exchange content with like-minded people.
Gone are the days when Discord was a little gamers’ sanctuary. Now, it has every kind of member of every background.
Every kind of material and topic surfaces on this platform, which is part of the bigger problem. Some content might not be appropriate for younger audiences or can hurt the sentiments of others.
Discord has explicitly stated that mature content posted in age-restricted servers or channels must be tagged as NSFW (Not Safe For Wumpus).
But, it never mentioned how to deal with people who use abusive or inappropriate language or gave any tool to censor offensive words up until 2022, when it launched Automod Discord (AutoMod).
AutoMod | Discord Content Filter
AutoMod is Discord’s built-in world filtering feature that allows you to block content containing anything offensive used in your community automatically.
AutoMod has multiple content filters that can help you censor or block any words you find inappropriate for your community.
Once you set the words or phrases you want to block AutoMod will automatically detect these words in the texts in your server. It will send you an intimation of such content or block the message.
Additionally, AutoMod can also detect unsolicited messages or spam content and block them from your community.
Moreover, with the “Block Commonly Flagged Words” option, you can filter words from a ready-made list of commonly flagged words. These include insulting or slur words, profanity, and sexual content.
It works on the Discord desktop client only. It goes like this:
- Launch Discord on your PC.
- Select your server from the left panel.
- Click on the little drop-down arrow at the top next to your server’s name.
- Select “Server Settings” from the menu.
- Find “Moderation” from the left panel and click the “AutoMod” option.
- Now you can see a few filters.
- To block words, tap on “Block Custom Words” and enter the keywords or phrases (separated by a comma) you want to censor in your community.
- Click “Save Changes” at the bottom and close the settings.
AutoMod will block messages containing these specific keywords or phrases.
Besides, you can select whether to get an alert when someone posts blocked keywords in your community or block the messages automatically.
Keep on updating your filtered words to keep them up to date. Make sure to keep an eye on your community to prevent people from using different synonyms of those offensive words.
Only admin or people with the “Manage Server” permission can use this feature on a particular server.
Alternative Methods
You can also use bots to filter bad words in your community. You can find plenty of bots that perform these roles.
Censor Bot is one such bot that can help you to censor words in your specific channels. Besides, the Anti-Swear bot allows you to maintain the log of all keywords you want to block from your server.
Alternatively, you can black out words to censor them or use spoiler tags on some images you fear are giving away too much.
To black out words, use “||” before and after the word you want to censor. The specific word or phrase will turn black. Anybody who wants to read it needs to click on it. You can also use the “/spoiler” command to black out any text.
You can use spoiler tags before posting any image like this:
- Tap on the plus icon next to the text box.
- Select “Upload a File.”
- Select any file from your device that you want to share.
- Before sharing the file, press the eye icon at the top.
- Hit Enter to blur the image and insert the spoiler tag on it.
The Bottom Line
Discord has made it easier for moderators to keep an eye on the content that floats in their communities.
Every server owner is responsible for a positive environment in their community by discouraging words and images that may hurt the sentiments of some people or be inappropriate for others.
With Discord AutoMod, you can assign the task of filtering bad words and content in your community to Discord. Be sure to monitor and audit your community to ensure everything goes as per your community rules and guidelines.
