[STEAM] Discord is delaying its controversial age verification methods due to backlash: ‘We’ve made mistakes’

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A couple weeks ago, Discord announced it would be employing age verification methods including facial scans and forms of ID in March. Naturally, the response was not happy.

Discord CTO and co-founder Stanislav Vishnevskiy put out a lengthy

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today announcing that the global rollout of its age verification is being delayed into the second half of 2026, while also confirming changes are being made to the system, and explaining why it's been deemed necessary in the first place.

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Image via Discord "Let me be upfront: we knew this rollout was going to be controversial," Vishnevskiy said. "Any time you introduce something that touches identity and verification, people are going to have strong feelings. Rightfully so." Vishnevskiy said that Discord "should have provided more detail about our intentions and how the process works" now with the benefit of "hindsight."

"The way this landed, many of you walked away thinking we're requiring face scans and ID uploads from everyone just to use Discord," he said. "That's not what's happening, but the fact that so many people believe it tells us we failed at our most basic job: clearly explaining what we're doing and why. That's on us. On top of that, many of you are worried that this is just another big tech company finding new ways to collect your personal data. That we're creating a problem to justify invasive solutions. I get that skepticism. It's earned, not just toward us, but toward the entire tech industry. But that’s not what we’re doing."

Vishnevskiy explained that age verification will only come back in the second half of the year once Discord has added more verification options, is more transparent with the vendors behind the processes, adding a new "spoiler" channel option, providing age assurance data in its transparency reports, and posting a technical blog post before full launch.

However, he also reiterated that "over 90 percent of users will never need to verify their age to continue using Discord exactly as they do today. And so, despite the outcry over

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that exposed 1.5TB of personal info from users who verified their info, the company is moving forward eventually with rolling out the feature globally.

"We've made mistakes," Vishnevskiy said. "I won't pretend we haven't. And I know that being a ******* company now means our mistakes have ******* consequences and erode trust faster. I don't expect one blog post to fix that. Trust is earned through actions over time: shipping the things we promised, owning it when we miss the mark, and giving you real control over your own experience."

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