Discord is allegedly banning users who share Nexus Mods links, and no one seems to know why

In a strange turn of events, Discord, a platform primarily used by gamers of all kinds, is allegedly banning players for the offense of sharing Nexus Mods links with each other. Some now believe a major third-party corporation is pushing for these decisions, with implied copyright infringement claims.

As spotted and heavily documented by users on Reddit, sharing Nexus Mods links specifically tied to Sony’s games Spider-Man and Marvel Rivals will apparently result in a two-year ban with no prior warning. Per the shared screenshots of bans, copyright infringement is cited as the reason for the bans, even though these mods are legitimate and free of charge, which should put them in the fair use category.

The users’ documentation, which contains supposed communications with both Discord staff and Nexus Mods support, implies that Sony mass-flagged various content related to its games, which led to false positives, banning folk who aren’t engaging in any sort of copyright infringement. Discord appears aware of the issue, as does Nexus Mods, but they have yet to offer concrete solutions or unban those adversely affected.

We have reached out to both Discord and Nexus Mods, but haven’t heard back by the time this article was published.

In the meantime, if you are eager to check out the massive new The Dawnless Days mod that transports Total War: Attila from medieval Europe to the fantastic world of Middle-earth, or are eager to mod the many indie games released in the past few months (like Megabonk or R.E.P.O.), then you should avoid sharing links for them in Discord. Instead, maybe use other platforms like Thunderstore, which doesn’t seem to be getting flagged.

Additionally, try to specifically avoid sharing Sony-related content from its Marvel games like Spider-Man and Marvel Rivals, as that seems to be the most troublesome of all the links.

It’s a strange occurrence to be sure, but it’s not surprising. Companies have been growing averse to mods lately, especially the biggest ones, with those like Capcom inclined to put layers upon layers of protection on their games to prevent any and all modding.

Which, of course, is a crying shame.

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