Plans to publicly release an extensive archive of historical Grand Unified Micronational Discord records have been abandoned following a further review of the material.
The archive, referred to as “The GUM Files”, was provided to the Musgravian administration in 2025 by an individual who at the time held a senior position within the GUM, and contains 263,226 messages from numerous GUM Discord channels, including internal staff channels.
Plans had been drawn up for Prime Minister Andrew Musgrave to issue an executive decree authorising the release of the archive. The proposed decree was expected to be submitted to Emperor Johannes Karl I Augustus for Imperial Assent, which was considered likely to be granted.
Under the proposal, the records would have been released through a dedicated website at gumfiles.austenasia.news.
Development of the proposed archive had already begun. Rather than simply providing the original files for download, the website was intended to recreate the structure of the Discord server from which the records originated. Visitors would have been able to browse individual channels and search the archived messages.
However, a further review of the files found that the logs contain discussions of serious allegations involving minors.
As part of its examination, the archive’s textual records were reviewed for potential Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). No CSAM was identified. The review did, however, identify discussions and allegations concerning sexualised conduct involving minors, alongside other potentially serious matters.
The Austenasian Times is not making any finding as to the truth or otherwise of those allegations. Their presence within the archive nevertheless raised concerns about releasing the complete logs to the public, particularly through a website specifically designed to make their contents easily searchable.
The proposed decree will therefore not be issued, and The GUM Files will not be released publicly in their present form.
The original records will be subject to further review where appropriate, particularly in relation to the serious allegations identified during the initial examination of the archive.
Should that review identify material which the Austenasian Government considers appropriate or necessary to refer to the relevant authorities, the records concerned will be provided to them.
A future, limited release of The GUM Files has not been ruled out. Any such release would exclude material considered inappropriate for public disclosure and would not constitute publication of the complete archive.
Archive Manifest
Although the files themselves are not being released, the Austenasian Government has published a document listing the 23 Discord channel records it holds.
The document includes what are known as SHA-256 hashes for each file, as well as one for the complete archive.
A hash can be thought of as a digital fingerprint. It is a unique string of letters and numbers calculated from a file. If even a small part of that file is subsequently changed, the fingerprint will also change.
Publishing the hashes now means that, if the files are examined or disclosed at a later date, they can be checked against the fingerprints published today to determine whether they are the same files.
However, a matching hash would only show that a file has remained unchanged. It would not, by itself, establish the provenance or authenticity of the records, or the truth of statements contained within them
The full archive remains private.
No details concerning allegations involving minors will be reproduced as part of this announcement.
