cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/17618684

Forced arbitration means any legal disputes you may have with Discord must be resolved through a single third party mediator, who 99% of the time is chosen by, and will rule in favor of, the corporation/Discord. This effectively removes all your legal rights as a consumer, because arbitration decisions are legally binding and non-appealable.

The new ToS goes into effect April 15th, 2024.

YOU CAN OPT OUT OF ARBITRATION. You must email arbitration-opt-out@discord.com BEFORE MAY 15TH (30 days after ToS effective date) with your username stating that you wish to opt out of the arbitration clause. Once May 15th passes you are bound to arbitration with Discord forever.

Opt-out before it’s too late.

  • frog 🐸@beehaw.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    101
    ·
    3 个月前

    Yeah, good luck enforcing that contract in any country that has a legal concept of “automatically unfair contract terms”.

  • helenslunch@feddit.nl
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    48
    ·
    3 个月前

    LOL at all these companies suddenly realizing they can just put “you can’t sue us” into their ToS.

    • jarfil@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      3 个月前

      That’s false.

      Any contract is legally binding… except for the parts that go against the law.

      I’d suggest consulting a lawyer knowledgeable of your particular jurisdiction, before deciding which part may or may not be binding.

      • Venia Silente@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        3 个月前

        Any contract is legally binding

        Exactly. And a TOS is not a contract.

        If you go to law definitions, contracts have a number of requirements to be such, of which to my knowledge a TOS fails two (Negotiability and Certainty).

        • jarfil@beehaw.org
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          3 个月前

          IANAL, check with your local lawyer, but AFAIK…

          ToS are a “generic contract”, where a single entity proposes the same contract to multiple parties.

          Negotiability, or more precisely offer and acceptance, are achieved by the simple “take it or leave it”. The requirement is that there needs to be an option, it doesn’t need to be one to change parts of the document.

          Certainty is usually achieved by adding a partial nullifying clause, so any ambiguous parts get automatically trimmed.

          • Venia Silente@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            3 个月前

            Negotiability, or more precisely offer and acceptance, are achieved by the simple “take it or leave it”.

            Maybe in the US, where that kind of this would honestly be expected. Here in more decent countries, Negotiability requires that both parties can exercise offer an acceptance to the contract. I consulted to our local digital ethics group about it and they are in accordance, at least to what pertains to my country.

  • Nora@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    14
    ·
    3 个月前

    We need a Federated FOSS Discord alternative built to work with the activity pub protocol.

    • BakedCatboy@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      edit-2
      3 个月前

      Has anybody made a matrix app that looks like a discord clone? That sounds easier since the federated rich text chat is already made, the current clients don’t really appeal to the discord crowd.

      • rnd@beehaw.org
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        3 个月前

        Cinny is the closest to Discord in terms of UI, it even has a feature where you can show subspaces within a space as if they’re categories of a Discord server.

        • flashgnash@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          3 个月前

          Is open source though, federation can always come later

          That said I’m not sure why they didn’t use matrix from the start

          • anlumo@feddit.de
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            3 个月前

            Federation isn’t something that can be added later. This has to be part of the protocol from the start.

    • jarfil@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      3 个月前

      So… Lemmy? Mastodon?

      Although I think Matrix is better suited for chat, just need a client with voice/video support.

  • flashgnash@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    14
    ·
    3 个月前

    Do I need to worry about this not being in the US? I’m wary of the way I word my opt out incase it causes me some issues down the line

  • Truck_kun@beehaw.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    3 个月前

    A few years ago, wasn’t there a company (maybe it was uber?) that was being overwhelmed by arbitration fee’s for a large number of arbitration cases? I forget the outcome, but it may be due to their agreement stipulating they would cover arbitration fees. Either way, forced arbitration needs to go.