discord’s new terms of service DO have a mandatory arbitration clause for the United States and Canada, you have 30 days to opt out by emailing an opt out notice to arbitration-opt-out@discord.com. this has been your standard “for the love of god do not waive your right to a jury trial under any circumstances” notice
Here is a quick link to the new (Sept 29, 2025) arbitration clause and informal dispute resolution info. When they originally began implementing in 2018 Discord clarified your opt-out email doesn’t need to follow any kind of template, but there are several options in the notes of this post. One thing I haven’t seen anyone add is to make sure you’re emailing from the email linked to your discord account. If you’ve already agreed to the terms of service you can still do this, and you’ve already opted out you probably should do it again just to err on the side of caution.
“the comedian Atsuko Okatsuka recently posted a screenshot of the proposed contract she received (and turned down) from the festival’s organizers. The section she shared, titled “Content Restrictions”, forbade material that denigrates “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including its leadership, public figures, culture, or people”, as well as the country’s legal system. It is a far cry from the principled stands comedians have taken against censorship in the past. Lenny Bruce and George Carlin, role models for many of today’s free speech warriors, both did battle with government censors: Bruce was arrested, prosecuted and convicted for his act, while Carlin’s led to a landmark supreme court decision that upheld the FCC’s authority to regulate indecency and obscenity on the public airwaves. For these comedians, “freedom of speech” means the freedom to say anything you want, including to be cruel to racial minorities, women, trans people and immigrants; to associate with conspiracy theorists and lend their platforms to politicians set on undermining democracy. Yet for all their claims of free speech absolutism, it now seems clear comedy’s champions of liberty are all too happy to censor themselves for the right price”
These dirtbags aren’t champions of free speech or principled warriors like George Carlin or Lenny Bruce. They are lazy bullies who take cheap and easy shots at vulnerable people, so stupid people will laugh.
So of COURSE they are going to take blood money from a murderous regime while they pat themselves on the back.
George Carlin would excoriate them. Lenny Bruce would savage their weakness.
And, like David Cross said, none of these comics need the money. They are all choosing to enrich themselves while they help whitewash and soften the image of one of the most repressive and murderous nations on the planet.
Everyone has choices to make in their lives, and those choices matter. These comics have all shown us that they aren’t worthy of our respect or attention, and they should be reminded when they do shows in America that they are stained by the blood money they accepted.
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