How Classified Pentagon Documents Spread Through a Minecraft Discord Server

The US military is facing a massive information crisis after top secret US documents about the war in Ukraine were leaked through multiple Discord servers.

according to wall street journal, the documents reportedly contain details about the war in Ukraine, US allies, US intrusion into Russia’s military plans, and more. Dozens of documents have been released so far, many labeled as “Top Secret” or “Top Secret,” according to the report.

Even more surprising is the path information has taken on the Internet. These documents appear to have first appeared on his small Discord server with mostly American users.The information ended up going through the Minecraft Discord server and the screenshots are BBC Posting back in early March. The classified information continued to spread, spreading via 4chan, Twitter and the Russian social network Telegram. US officials launch investigation last week.

According to investigative news site Belling Cat, the leak may have started on a Discord server called WowMao, run by the YouTuber of the same name. A member of the server posted over 30 documents from March 1st to he March 2nd. This was a few days before it appeared on Minecraft servers. He was on April 7th when the document was removed from his Discord server.

However, the Bellingcat report also points out that the leak may have originated in January on a now-deleted Discord server known as Thug Shaker Central. However, the report states that it is impossible to verify the veracity of these claims given the non-existence of the servers.

The Minecraft server in question is called Minecraft Earth Map. On March 4, two users appeared to be arguing over a Minecraft map and the war in Ukraine, with one user posting 10 documents about Ukraine saying, “Here are some leaked I have a document.” I was prompted to write. The document appears to have been stored on this server without him being noticed by government officials for over a month.

The WSJ report said the United States was assessing the damage of the leak, calling it “one of the most significant leaks of classified U.S. documents in recent history.” Defense officials say some documents appear to be genuine, while others may have been tampered with. The original source of the leak is currently unknown.

Discord is currently working with law enforcement to investigate the leak. In a statement to KotakuA Discord spokesperson said, “Providing a safe experience for our users is Discord’s top priority. When we become aware of content that violates our policies, our safety team investigates and bans users, We will take appropriate action such as shutting it down.We will take the server down and involve law enforcement.”

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over 6 years of experience in the games industry and has bylines for IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.