The judge noted that any potential threat could be mitigated by marking the personally identifying data as "highly confidential." Only a handful of people would ever see this information, he said, so the disclosure shouldn't harm the unnamed woman's rights to speech and association. The official acknowledged that many of these racists chose Discord knowing it would help anonymize their activities, and that the woman in question appeared to be directly involved in preparing for the racist march.

The woman's attorney is still considering whether or not he will appeal the ruling. If courts uphold the decision, though, it could signal that chat anonymity has its legal limits. And Discord hasn't waited around for a verdict to take action -- it has been banning "alt-right" accounts and servers for violating its terms of service.