Open-source intelligence analysts reported that Crooks didn’t appear to use mainstream social media channels such as Facebook or Instagram and had an almost negligible internet footprint, which is highly unusual for a 20-year-old. Instead, analysts said that Crooks corresponded with friends and associates on a Discord server that they were now trying to access.
Discord servers are restricted ring-fenced sections of the internet. They are often used by gaming groups and communities as secure chat rooms but are also used by fringe organisations to push their ideologies and discuss wild conspiracy theories and plots.
The bit about Discord is weird, it's not like it's some decentralized service, the company has access to everything on their servers if they want to.
I think they're using a lot of words to say, "things said in a discord channel aren't meant to be spread around to other internet services."
how spooky scary!
open source intelligence is just a fancy word for PI's. So I'm sure the feds have access, but they aren't giving it to the media