In us too? I’m not giving my license
Discord will restrict your account next month unless you scan ID or face
Submitted 18 hours ago by criss_cross@lemmy.world to games@lemmy.world
https://9to5google.com/2026/02/09/discord-age-restrictions-default-face-id-scans/
Comments
sommerset@thelemmy.club 10 hours ago
thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 18 hours ago
Hope this will mass exodus into Matrix, like it happened with Twitter / X.
okwhateverdude@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
Matrix will sadly never be a thing, much like XMPP never really became a thing (well, it was a thing until google pulled a play from the 90-00s era Microsoft of Embrace, Extend, Extinguish). And each of those is tried to replace IRC which still works and is perfectly fine.
gegil@sopuli.xyz 17 hours ago
As a matrix user and a former discord user (4 years ago), i can say that matrix just sucks compared to amount of features even 4 year old discord had.
Unless there will be an alternative social networks which do all the basic discord features like: large communities, channels, voice/video chats, roles, bots; and it does it all well, than nobody will move off discord.
People would rather tolerate significant anti-features if software has lots of features, than tolerate lack of features despite not having anti-features.
littleomid@feddit.org 17 hours ago
Matrix can literally do everything you just mentioned. It’s clunky, but it works.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
How well does Matrix / Element work for screen sharing games?
rozodru@piefed.world 16 hours ago
doubt it. better off just setting up channels in libera chat on IRC and doin voice via teamspeak/mumble like we used to do it back in the day.
shit, someone needs to bring back ICQ.
undrwater@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
IRC protocol is audio capable.
shelf@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 hours ago
Matrix doesn’t have any of the same features discord has for voice and video.
TrickDacy@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
Nice. Now when someone tries to make me use discord, I’ll have a better excuse than “I hate it”
Paradachshund@lemmy.today 17 hours ago
CaptDust@sh.itjust.works 17 hours ago
Discord said I’m certified teen full rizz all drip fr what’s up 67ers?
Freakazoid@lemmy.ml 17 hours ago
For those looking for an alternative, try stoat.chat or matrix
SalamenceFury@piefed.social 17 hours ago
Stoat it is lol (stoat.chat)
gegil@sopuli.xyz 17 hours ago
This project looks interesting, i might try it. As i undesrtand, its designed around all of the basic discord features, and nothing else that nobody asked for.
The cool thing about being foss project, is if the developers for some reason become too greedy (lets be real, its true for foss), the next exact second there will be a new fork created, a new team formed, a new server hosted, and all of the users will move to it instantly.
Hond@piefed.social 18 hours ago
I’m on discord for piracy and modding. Sure over the years i joined a few other channels. But most foss adjacent channels have matrix bridges. idgaf. if servers required my phone number i always just left the server. discord wont get shit.
sommerset@thelemmy.club 10 hours ago
Wait really? Wtfff
Walk_blesseD@piefed.blahaj.zone 15 hours ago
Half of Lemmy, for some reason: grr we hate kids!!! Ban them from social media!!!!
Lemmy users when platforms start doing as they asked: 😮
Zorque@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
Almost like social sites arent monolithic, and different people can be outraged by different things!
Walk_blesseD@piefed.blahaj.zone 13 hours ago
Are you surprised that the blunt instrument of boomer legislation is operating without the nuance you’d like?
OldQWERTYbastard@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
I never had a need for discord and never will. Good riddance.
AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.ca 15 hours ago
Doesn’t look like this will affect everyone. From the release:
- Content Filters: Discord users will need to be age-assured as adults in order to unblur sensitive content or turn off the setting.
- Age-gated Spaces – Only users who are age-assured as adults will be able to access age-restricted channels, servers, and app commands.
- Message Request Inbox: Direct messages from people a user may not know are routed to a separate inbox by default, and access to modify this setting is limited to age-assured adult users.
- Friend Request Alerts: People will receive warning prompts for friend requests from users they may not know.
- Stage Restrictions: Only age-assured adults may speak on stage in servers.
I don’t use any of those.
borari@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 hours ago
If the DM filters treat people with mutual, large, public servers as people you may know and does not filter those chats, most users will probably be like you and be largely unimpacted. If it treats people with those types of mutual servers as people you may not know and does filter those DMs, Discord is shooting themselves in the foot. 99% of my Discord usage is finding people to squad with in online games, and no one like staying in voice channels in the official game servers.
Glide@lemmy.ca 17 hours ago
The only way to get around this would be to verify your age, which Discord says can be accomplished in one of two ways. The first is to “submit a form of identification” to Discord vendors (i.e. scan your physical ID), or to use “facial age estimation.” Discord says that the latter process happens fully on-device, as “video selfies for facial age estimation never leave a user’s device.” For ID scans, Discord says that documents “are deleted quickly.”
Between the features that are limiting being almost entirely things I don’t want anyway (random friend invites are literally just fucking scams and ads to begin with), and the entire process being completed on-device… What is this, some slow news day? Everyone is losing their minds about this being some insane overstep like Discord is asking for a blood dample, or even a photo of your driver’s license.
Don’t get me wrong, fuck this age verification nonsense, but it’s pretty clear this is some very specific government regulatory appeasement where Discord is attempting to avoid culpability for holding data at basically every joint possible. They already have the useful, farmable data, like geolocation, age/gender demographics and interests. They don’t want our government ID. They only want a “yes” or “no” from their app.
Must be a slow news day. Everyone’s blowing this up in headlines for cheap clicks.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 17 hours ago
Don’t get me wrong, fuck this age verification nonsense, but it’s pretty clear this is some very specific government regulatory appeasement where Discord is attempting to avoid culpability for holding data at basically every joint possible.
That’s 100% what it is. It also sincerely makes me not want to use Discord, because even if this is what governments want, it’s extremely bad for users.
Pika@sh.itjust.works 17 hours ago
I’m waiting for some government to outlaw collecting the information in general outside of official government agencies. I would love to see big tech squirm as they try to figure out a valid way to harvest the data in one country, but prevent it in another.
cecilkorik@piefed.ca 16 hours ago
That’s fine if that’s your personal response. This still feels like a misdirected and ultimately useless response though.
This is a government-created problem. Are we expecting widespread boycotts of Discord to change the government’s mind? Of course not.
If it’s extremely bad for users, then users need to change their government. Yeah, yeah, I know the excuses for not doing that, they don’t listen, we are all powerless, it is the way it is, yadda yadda. It’s a lie. We are powerful, they want us feeling powerless so we can’t challenge them. Fuck that, challenge them. Government exists to represent us, it can exist in perpetuity only with our active and ongoing consent and participation. If people in totalitarian countries can overthrow their governments, so can we, we don’t have to do it overnight, we don’t have to do it over this one single isolated issue, but we can at least start working against them, eroding the structures that support them. Fuck governments like these, figure out ways to twist their arm, make things more difficult for them, and eventually, if we keep at it, we’ll get what we want. We hold the power here, not them. We decide what kind of society we want to live in. We need to stop abdicating our responsibilities as citizens and actively fight against this shit.
Katana314@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
I might consider the facial verification thing if someone fulfills a security audit that both verifies the photo is never sent, encrypted or not, and it does not stay on the device’s drive.
But yeah, part of me hopes some number of privacy focused companies will just abandon business in these locations and claim “It’s only a matter of time before they reverse course for security failures, we will just wait until then.”
Gobbel2000@programming.dev 16 hours ago
The restrictions don’t seem very limiting. Why would I ever do this?
NatakuNox@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
Whelp. US based tech is going to shit. Bail now before your data becomes state property.
RestrictedAccount@lemmy.world 17 hours ago
Already deleted!
arrrse@piefed.social 16 hours ago
Back to teamspeak
THE_GR8_MIKE@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
Teamspeak and Vent, now is your time to shine.
KiwiTB@lemmy.world 17 hours ago
Back to mumble, sigh
hkwln@lemmy.ml 17 hours ago
Do you have any suggestions for a better/open-source alternative?
Babalugats@feddit.uk 17 hours ago
A few mentioned here, with them recommending mumble
thatradomguy@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
Big brother, is that you?