“That’s on us:” Discord admits mistakes and hits pause after age verification fiasco

Following widespread backlash, Discord has admitted mistakes in its controversial age verification rollout and is delaying global expansion to the second half of 2026. Forced by regulations, Discord now plans to offer “multiple verification vendors,” passing on the choice to users.

“We’ve made mistakes. I won't pretend we haven't,” admits Stanislav Vishnevskiy, Discord CTO and co-founder, in a blog post.

“We heard you, and we want to get this right.”

The tech company, which powers online hangouts for millions of gamers, hobbyists, and fan communities, announced that it is delaying the global identity verification rollout to the second half of 2026.

Moreover, it will affect “less than 10% of users who do need to verify,” while for most users, “nothing changes.”

According to Discord, over 90% of users never access age-restricted content or change their default safety settings.

“We failed at our most basic job: clearly explaining what we're doing and why. That's on us,” Vishnevskiy said.

What is Discord aiming at?

Discord explains that it will continue to meet age verification requirements due to regulations already in force in the UK, Australia, and Brazil, with Europe and several US states expected to follow.

Before the global rollout, the firm plans to add more verification options. One alternative in development includes credit card verification.

“We will offer multiple verification vendors and make it clear directly in the product who each vendor is, what method they use, and how they handle your data, so you can make an informed decision about which option you’re most comfortable with,” the company said.

To ensure transparency, Discord promises to document every verification vendor and their practices on its website, and to only work with partners that perform facial age estimation entirely on-device.

Discord will also introduce additional options for communities to make sensitive content opt-in, such as a dedicated spoiler channel, without requiring the use of age-restricted channels.

The firm assures its internal safety system can accurately determine age for most adult users without any action required. Verification only triggers for users who can’t be automatically verified but want to access sensitive content. They still have a choice to opt out with no loss to other core features.

Fortune reports that Discord cut ties with Persona, which was found to offer services to US federal agencies.

Vishnevskiy explained in the blog post that Discord ran a limited test with Persona in the UK only, but the company did not meet the bar of performing age verification entirely on-device, meaning your biometric data never leaves the user's phone.

“After completing the test, we decided not to move forward with them, and consistent with our privacy policy, all data was deleted after completing verification,” Vishnevskiy assured.

“The idea is simple: we don't want to know who you are. We just need to know whether you're an adult. And it works both ways: a vendor has no way to associate your identity back to your Discord account either.”

The company plans to release public documentation of all verification vendors, a technical blog post before global rollout, as well as other transparency reports.

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