Gig Harbor teen livestreamed his death. Why his parents want Discord held liable
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- A Gig Harbor teenager took his own life in January 2022 on a livestreamed video.
- The 13-year-old’s parents have sued Discord, alleging the social media giant is liable.
- Their son was coerced by members of a sadistic network on Discord, the suit alleges.
The parents of a 13-year-old Gig Harbor boy who took his own life on a livestreamed video have sued the social media giant Discord, alleging that the platform enabled a network of sadistic members who coerced their son into his death.
Colby and Leslie Taylor, the parents of Jay Taylor, filed the lawsuit Feb. 19 in Pierce County Superior Court. Jay died on Jan. 17, 2022.
“Law enforcement investigated Jay’s death. Aided by a key witness, law enforcement made the shocking discovery that a Discord community had coerced Jay into hanging himself on livestream,” the complaint said. “The video was then replicated and reposted across Discord where it remained as marketing material for the 764 Network.”
Jay was targeted by an extremist group on Discord known as “The 764 Network,” which glorifies violence, employs blackmail and aims to coerce victims into extreme abuse that includes self-harm, sexual abuse, animal mutilation, extortion and suicide, according to the complaint.
“The organization was not merely created and operated on Discord; it thrived there, taking full advantage of the environment designed to shield predators and dangle their prey before them through channels and chats shrouded in privacy and sham safeguards,” the suit said.
Disrupting the 764 network and affiliated groups has been among the social media platform’s highest priorities, according to Discord, a platform particularly popular with video gamers. The company said it has proactively worked with law enforcement since 2021, leading to leaders and members of 764 being apprehended; employs highly skilled teams to detect and act on wrongdoing; and has removed thousands of servers and banned hundreds of thousands of users.
Discord declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing its practice of not publicly addressing legal matters.
How Jay was targeted
Jay excelled at math and science, was a talented athlete, played the French horn and possessed an immense creative talent, particularly enjoying crochet, according to the suit. He was trans and joined Discord in mid-January 2022 to find new friends in the trans community, according to the suit.
Jay received a response to his message seeking a pen pal. The user was a 12-year-old girl who had been coerced for months into performing sexual and violent acts by a “central figure” on Discord’s 764 server. That figure used the moniker “White Tiger” and lived in Hamburg, Germany, the suit said. The girl was pressured to either kill herself or find somebody else to die, according to the suit.
Jay previously was suicidal and in active treatment and recovery for depression, the suit said, adding that the 12-year-old girl had notified “White Tiger” that she had found somebody who appeared vulnerable enough to kill themselves. The girl pressured Jay to join her for a supposed joint suicide pact. He initially resisted, but didn’t want her to die alone, the suit said.
The girl set up a video call with Jay and members of 764. At one point “White Tiger” took over the call to demand Jay take his clothes off, but Jay didn’t disrobe before taking his life, according to the complaint.
“Left behind were Jay’s mom and dad, his three brothers, and his beloved pet bird, Melon,” the lawsuit said. “To date, nobody from Discord has offered a word of condolence to the Taylor family in the wake of their unbearable loss.”
More victims out there
The Taylors are among a growing list of families whose children have been victimized by “diabolical users” on Discord, according to the suit. The FBI has reportedly opened 350 investigations into the 764 Network as of Sept. 30, the suit said.
“Communities so methodically depraved like this don’t emerge overnight,” attorney Naomi Leeds, who’s on the legal team representing the Taylors, said in an interview Friday. “They need time and a hospitable environment for them to be so orchestrated, so well-oiled and able to so efficiently groom children this way in masses.”
Jay’s death was highlighted in October in the Washington Post, which reported on the investigation’s extension from the Gig Harbor police to the FBI and eventually authorities in Germany. “White Tiger,” a 20-year-old medical student, was arrested in June and charged with Jay’s murder, according to the Post. The newspaper also reported that the livestream originally occurred via Instagram.
The suspect was identified as Shahriar J, but news outlets have generally withheld his last name due to German privacy laws. His trial, in which he’s accused of more than 200 offenses against 30 children and teenagers, started last month behind closed doors because he was a juvenile at the time of the alleged crimes, the BBC reported. His attorney has rejected the charges as baseless and experimental, according to the outlet.
The Taylors’ lawsuit accuses Discord of negligence and trafficking, among other claims. It alleges the platform’s allowance of anonymous and private communications, and unsupervised interactions between adults and children, facilitates coercive exploitation.
“Since at least 2021, Discord had actual knowledge, or was willfully blind to the fact, that its platform was being used by a discrete entity to exploit children and vulnerable users through coercive practices, including suicide promotion and psychological control,” the suit said. “Despite this knowledge, Discord continued to provide 764 access to its platform, failed to take reasonable steps to prevent or disrupt such exploitation, and affirmatively maintained the same product design and defaults that enabled the abuse.”
The lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages and legal fees. Attorney Carrie Goldberg, who’s also on the legal team representing the Taylors, told The News Tribune that the family’s main motivation is to prevent “this kind of hell” from happening to anyone else.
“Discord is a platform that markets itself to children who are vulnerable, and it has long known that the 764 cult has infiltrated its platform and used Discord to grow and recruit other kids,” Goldberg said. “And yet, it has never stopped that from happening.”
This story was originally published February 20, 2026 at 1:35 PM.
