YES! This is AMAZING! 🎉

Keep pushing against abusive practices, and keep fighting for your privacy rights!

IT WORKS! ✊🔒

https://9to5mac.com/2026/02/24/discord-just-canceled-its-planned-age-verification-rollout-for-now/

Edit: Just to be clear, I still encourage everyone to move to better platforms and delete your Discord accounts (even if there was no age verification at all). Discord isn't a privacy-respectful platform.

But this small victory means we should keep pushing for better privacy practices, everywhere.

This means they are listening. This means you have the power to make things better, for yourself and for others.

Celebrate that. And keep pushing back.

#Privacy #AgeVerification #Discord #PrivacyWin

Discord just canceled its planned age verification rollout, for now - 9to5Mac

Discord’s controversial age verification saga has reached a new turning point. The original rollout plan has officially been canceled, with...

9to5Mac

@Em0nM4stodon

Hit their bottom pockets and the "necessary thing" quickly becomes "optional".

Amazing what bleeding money and an impending IPO will do.

@Em0nM4stodon

My 9yr sub ran out yesterday, and I don't think I'll ever renew it. They've lost my trust already.

@sar @Em0nM4stodon they are still doing it. nothing has changed.

@solonovamax @sar @Em0nM4stodon

The person responsible for that headline should be flogged, at least metaphorically. "Canceled...for now."

Oh, you mean delayed? Postponed? Rescheduled?

Even with the qualifier at the end "canceled" lends the act a more permanent connotation than they actually intend.

...thus concludes my channeling of my news editor father . . . for now.

@EdCates @sar @Em0nM4stodon not just "for now"

they're very clearly still going through with it:

https://tech.lgbt/@solonovamax/116128249113105750

solo (@[email protected])

to anyone touting this as them changing their mind: they have not. they still plan to do exactly the same thing they planned to before. that is, use your messages to determine your and if you get included in the 10% that are assumed to be children you have to upload id/do a facial scan. none of this has changed. they still plan to do a global rollout of age verification. https://discord.com/blog/getting-global-age-assurance-right-what-we-got-wrong-and-whats-changing @[email protected] https://infosec.exchange/@Em0nM4stodon/116127786561206440

LGBTQIA+ and Tech

@solonovamax @Em0nM4stodon

Not quite true though, is it?

Regardless of whether you believe them or not, they're now committing to using companies that will only perform the check locally on your device, whereas previously they were going to be storing your ID/info for up to 7 days remotely. And in the case of their previous partnership with Persona that 7 days would become unlimited duration.

Also, credit card verification wasn't previously an option, which is a better option for those that don't want to hand over their biometric data.

I'm certainly not an apologist for them, and I'll personally not be verifying anything with them (or any age verification service, ever, for that matter), but I do think saying "nothing has changed" is as equally inaccurate as the "cancelled" portion of that headline.

@Em0nM4stodon

This is what happens when you hit them where it hurts, in the nu... I mean wallet. That is the only way they listen. Discord has a long ways to go before it is redeemed, but this is a win for the good guys!

@Em0nM4stodon All my friends moved to Signal. I assume Discord is just gonna pull a that thing most companies do and wait til they think everyone has forgotten before repeating their b.s.

@werringworlds @Em0nM4stodon they even admitted they'll do it in their blog post

We’re delaying our global rollout to the second half of 2026.

@solonovamax @Em0nM4stodon 😮‍💨Wow... I'd say I'm surprised but it just seemed inevitable...
solo (@[email protected])

to anyone touting this as them changing their mind: they have not. they still plan to do exactly the same thing they planned to before. that is, use your messages to determine your and if you get included in the 10% that are assumed to be children you have to upload id/do a facial scan. none of this has changed. they still plan to do a global rollout of age verification. https://discord.com/blog/getting-global-age-assurance-right-what-we-got-wrong-and-whats-changing @[email protected] https://infosec.exchange/@Em0nM4stodon/116127786561206440

LGBTQIA+ and Tech
@Em0nM4stodon "Age Assurance" Oh, so that's the new euphemism for spying.
@garretpolk @Em0nM4stodon Why not just go ahead and add it to the gas station apps while we're at it?

@coreysnipes @garretpolk @Em0nM4stodon So far that shit at Speedway is presumably for cigarettes, lottery, and yes, alcohol sold at gas stations in some states.

If one chain expands it to cash purchases of gasoline, their competitors will clean up. There is no push for a law to require showing a drivers license to buy gasoline, possibly because it is also used in things like gas mowers.

@Em0nM4stodon this buys us time, but they will try again. Probably split it into smaller steps to reduce the pushback or smth.

And if they do an IPO and sell, then... all bets are off anyway. Enshittification will take them one way or another.

@siguza @Em0nM4stodon Hopefully, "time" is an ingredient we can use well.
@Em0nM4stodon They're still planning to rolll this out so I would push for alternatives in the meantime.
@Em0nM4stodon it helps also that all these verification companies seem to be run by clueless muppets.

@Em0nM4stodon

Even though I rarely used it, I like to think that I helped in my tiny little middle finger way.

@Mikal @Em0nM4stodon Nice! I just got my confirmation as well.
@Em0nM4stodon And also, still leave the platform. Make an example of it.

@Em0nM4stodon Until they explicitly say they're scrapping ID/face verification of age for everyone, I say we keep the fire under their asses going. Tell the Stoat and Matrix and Mattermost and all the other platforms that people are going to that they should use this time to prepare for the second influx that'll come in 3-6 months when Discord does the thing they still plan on doing. Those who have already swapped should keep at it. If Discord wants to die on this hill, let them.

[edited to fix a typo and make a sentence less awkward]

@disorderlyf @Em0nM4stodon at what point do you walk away, enough is enough? Folks are so dang conditioned to just take whatever these companies dish out and just roll with the inconveniences for the sake of keeping the status quo.
@christoff @disorderlyf @Em0nM4stodon Network effect. It's not that easy. And they know that 🙈
@christoff @Em0nM4stodon The best time was yesterday. The second best time is today.

@disorderlyf @Em0nM4stodon damn right! I left cherished communities behind, it sucks. But, like Twitter, I can’t ignore it being a racist and nazi platform. Left after Elon got it. Wish more folks I respected didn’t go back to those areas and betray their entire stance once it got rough :(

It’s sad. It is starkly relatively lonely but I have to live with myself. I can’t fathom how others can just ignore it. Anyway, agreed, lol

@disorderlyf @Em0nM4stodon they have explicitly said they intend to continue this no matter what
@Em0nM4stodon cool. Not reinstalling tho. They have nothing to offer but shady shit.
@Em0nM4stodon alternatively, we could just ditch another corporate walled garden, because they will do that, or worse, again. Soon.
@Em0nM4stodon We won, but only by a small margin. There shouldn't be this ridiculous age verification stuff. But a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, so let's keep fighting.
@doin @Em0nM4stodon no we won nothing. they're still doing it. they have not gone back on a single thing.
@solonovamax You're right. But we showed them what we're capable of, and that's already the first step towards victory. I've been anxious about this whole time, so seeing this news this morning made me really happy.
@solonovamax I've finished reading it. I was too optimistic. The main idea of ​​this article is that we're not going to eat people in a barbaric way anymore; we're going to eat them in a more refined way, and we've decided to wait a few hours before eating. Fuck.

@doin exactly

absolutely nothing has changed, except they just want to make it SEEM like things have changed so that all the hate goes away.

@solonovamax Yes, thank you for reminding me. Let go of illusions and keep fighting.
@doin I literally immediately suspected that it was all bullshit so went straight to check their blog
@solonovamax You are a smart person who can see things clearly.
@Em0nM4stodon Nice.
however, i already deleted my account 2yrs ago, so i don't really get affected

still care tho :)

@Em0nM4stodon

They pushed it back a couple months... It's not going away. Don't celebrate just yet.

@Em0nM4stodon misleading headline. They didn’t cancel it, they just pushed it back while they finish fleshing it out. It’s progress, but not much imo

Edit: I was being a dick. See below

@phillip
It's important to celebrate that our collective action had an impact.

Is this solving the problem entirely? Of course not. And Discord is still a privacy-hostile platform, even without age verification.

But the fact that people got angry, and this made the platform move in a less privacy-hostile direction is a win. And we need to celebrate each win. No matter how small.

It doesn't mean we are leaving the fight. It means we can enjoy this small victory today, then fight even harder tomorrow.

@Em0nM4stodon I agree 100%. Perfection is the enemy of progress

Sorry, I had a quick, knee jerk reaction. Wasn’t meant as a slight to you

9to5Mac’s misleading headline irked me and I’ve been having frustrating conversations with friends who don’t see the problem with all of this, and/or don’t have all the facts before making judgments. It has me feeling even more pessimistic than usual :/

@phillip That is understandable. I can relate with how frustrating this can get. Make sure to recharge around people sharing your privacy values to prevent burnout. Self-care is important in this long battle 💚
@Em0nM4stodon doing my best. Thank you, friend 🫶

@phillip @Em0nM4stodon been there. Keep up the good fight.

I can't even get the people I know IRL to understand that having their ID leak via a contractor data breach onto the open web (which already happened!) would increase their risk of identity theft. Let alone whatever else these companies may do with the data.

Nor can I seem to make them understand their refusal to care about their privacy reduces my ability to protect my own identity online.

@theeclecticdyslexic @Em0nM4stodon it’s so frustrating! Especially when they’re in the bell curve of knowing enough to think they know everything

@phillip @Em0nM4stodon I know one person in particular that is stuck in an endless ideological trap of "all technology is neutral, it will be fine".

The amount of screaming I want to do...

@theeclecticdyslexic @Em0nM4stodon ugh, I feel you :/ it’s a lot sometimes

@Em0nM4stodon

For now.

Discord cancelled the rollout of fsce scans/mandatory ID FOR NOW.

@Em0nM4stodon my guess is that #discord had a "#PiperChat moment" and realized that their entire business model IS a #COPPA violation!
Gross COPPA Violation

YouTube
@Em0nM4stodon it's going to keep happening for this and other platforms if people keep voting for the politicians who are pushing for this kind of surveillance. Discord is only doing this to get ahead of all the new laws that require it.