this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2026
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Discord to Require ID or Face Scan Next Month for Full Access (discord.com)
submitted 13 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) by Beep@lemmus.org to c/technology@lemmy.world
142 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Discord Alternatives

  • Lobste.rs;
  • Tildes.

    • Beginning with a phased global rollout to new and existing users in early March, users may be required to engage in an age-verification process to change certain settings or access sensitive content. This includes age-restricted channels, servers, or commands and select message requests.

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    [–] Aatube@thriv.social 5 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

    only changes for the unverified:

    • Channels, servers, and commands set to age-restricted will be inaccessible
    • DM requests deemed "sensitive" will be inaccessible
    • "Sensitive content" will be blurred
    • Won't be able to become a speaker in "stage" channels, a special type where a few videoconferencers have a meeting where anyone else can watch and type but not videoconference; verified watchers can be invited to speak
    • DMs from unfamiliar users will be routed to a separate "warning"

    nothing else

    I think this is business as usual...

    [–] sudoer777@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

    Youtube age restricts pro-Palestine stuff and the government age restricts the Epstein files, so I can imagine this would target political or LGBTQ spaces, which are some of the worst spaces to require ID for. There's a local political server I'm in, which due to this I'm strongly urging to migrate to Matrix with Discord bridges, and am offering to help with.

    [–] Aatube@thriv.social 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

    Server owners must apply an age-restricted label to any channels that contain sexually explicit content involving adults or content involving adults that is shared solely for the purposes of sexual gratification.

    nothing else needs to be age-restricted, and age restriction of topics you mentioned would be big news for discord. pluralkit's home is discord and has great influence there, and the lgbtq+ community definitely has a larger presence than the plural community

    [–] sudoer777@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

    https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/1500005389362-What-are-Age-Restricted-Servers-on-Discord

    This here says that Discord can automatically age-restrict channels and specifically mentions channels focused on sexual content in a different section, implying that this is not the only "mature" topic they will age restrict.

    [–] Aatube@thriv.social 0 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

    https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/1500005292701-How-to-Access-an-Age-Restricted-Server-FAQ clarifies that Discord would only do that for servers that otherwise violate the Community Guidelines's provisions on adult content, whose only mention of which I quoted above.

    [–] sudoer777@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 hour ago

    That doesn't look like clarification to me. It explicitly mentions sexual content then gives a vague "age-restricted themes" and "18+ content" that they can apply arbitrarily like YouTube did with "Hind's Hall"

    [–] acetanilide@lemmy.world 4 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

    Can someone help me figure out if matrix/element would work for what I need? So far it looks decent, but my main issue is figuring out integrations/bots.

    Is there a way to integrate something like PluralKit there?

    [–] vithigar@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

    Matrix does have a bot API, but there is not even close to as robust an ecosystem of bots to choose from. Whatever you want is probably possible, but depending on your needs you may have to write it yourself.

    [–] acetanilide@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

    That makes sense. Thank you!!

    [–] Psythik@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

    Is Matrix a self-hosted alternative to Discord? I've been looking for one but the closest I can find is RocketChat, which is meant more for corporate environments. I'm going to be launching a radio station for Lemmy soon and I need a suitable solution for chat platform that I can integrate with my website (and eventually app).

    [–] sudoer777@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

    Matrix is sort of a mishmash of things, not a fan of the UX but it has federation and encryption and isn't Discord, and also has bridges to various platforms

    [–] deathbird@mander.xyz 16 points 6 hours ago

    It seems like the restriction should be lifted for accounts without verification after 5 years. After all, you're not even allowed to sign up if you're under 13, so by 5 years you have to be at least 18.

    [–] iamdefinitelyoverthirteen@lemmy.world 25 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

    Well, the day it asks me for ID/face scan is the day I delete my account. Their days are numbered.

    [–] Turret3857@infosec.pub 4 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

    You think they'll let you access the account settings to delete the account without scanning your face first?

    [–] sudoer777@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

    Just log in with a third party client where people in the Issues are complaining about being banned. Or use your Discord token and spam their API with illegal calls until they ban your account

    [–] TheUnsungRooster@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

    If they don't they would open the door to people committing spam or abuse intentionally to receive a suspension as the next best thing. I know I'll do it if they don't let me delete my account.

    [–] dev_null@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

    They won't let you send messages without finishing verification

    [–] TheUnsungRooster@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 hours ago

    Then I'll email their support and be rude to them until they get fed up. I'm sure I can be nasty enough in some way to get them to suspend me no matter how bad they want me.

    [–] Pxtl@lemmy.ca 36 points 9 hours ago

    I love how photo-based age verification scanning is the worst of both worlds - it destroys your anonymity, but not in a way that makes it easier to run a community where you can ban a person by their digital ID since they can just make a new one with the same face since facial recognition is too crude for that.

    [–] eager_eagle@lemmy.world 279 points 13 hours ago (14 children)

    I hope that discourages open source projects and similar communities from using discord as forum / user support.

    [–] PiraHxCx@lemmy.dbzer0.com 131 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

    Yep, hate when I want to follow some project and they link you to X, Reddit and Discord lol

    [–] P1nkman@lemmy.world 69 points 12 hours ago

    Need support? Contract us on @SupportThatNeverReplies on Shitter (the nazi-everything app)!

    [–] Sineljora@sh.itjust.works 8 points 8 hours ago (4 children)

    https://stoat.chat/download

    Stoat looks promising as an open source alternative

    [–] Turret3857@infosec.pub 7 points 4 hours ago

    Theyve been around for a few years and I'm still not really impressed. No E2EE, No federation if the people running it go belly up. You might as well use signal ATP.

    [–] FalschgeldFurkan@lemmy.world 13 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

    Looks promising...

    but why is it always electron?

    [–] quips@slrpnk.net 7 points 6 hours ago

    FOR REAL BRO

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    [–] EaterOfLentils@programming.dev 10 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (3 children)

    What alternative should we all switch to?

    Also thinking AI fake IDs will end up being an easy way around this.

    [–] TheUnsungRooster@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 hours ago

    I hope people using fake IDs to bypass it becomes common knowledge. Felony or not it's effective and the ID verifying part isn't.

    [–] matlag@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

    Drop anything that's not opensource and federated, except if you want to live the enshitification process over and over.

    Matrix might be the closest to Discord. XMPP should also be considered.

    [–] whelk@retrolemmy.com 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

    I'm still trying to understand why XMPP isn't more widely used. Probably the whole no single centralized service thing like most other federated protocols/services

    [–] matlag@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

    XMPP biggest issues:

    • The absurdly and laugably slowness of the protocol evolution on critically needed features: it was bleeding edge years back. The XSF totally screwed up the VoIP extension management. Google dropped a working out-of-the-box solution on the table in 2005: "Take it and use it! You're welcome!". They took 4 years to improve it before declaring the extension stable. Only then did clients start implementations, and bummer: the spec was not perfect, there were a lot of hiccups and "client A can make calls to B but not C" issues, because, who would have guessed, the only way to improve a spec at some point is to test it out there, and not stare at it and make some minor changes. By the time, most XMPP users of the time who wanted VoIP had moved on to others tools, XMPP went from at the top to very late. They're doing it again with MIX (next gen rooms): the first draft is from 2015. It's still "experimental", though some servers team started implementation (such lack of patience...)
    • An ocean of servers/clients with no consistency. You get to Matrix, and you have Element for all platforms. It can be native code everywhere, but it's the same look and feel. You can tell your pops "just install Element". In the XMPP world, there is no equivalent, though Snikket seems to be going there (consistent UI across platforms): all clients are different, different UI, platform specific with different set of features, some are a 1 guy project. If you're not guided by a tek-savvy person, you have no idea where to start.

    With all that said, I run a server for our family and its resources consumption is barely a blip on the radar. The lightest Matrix servers are an order of magnitude hungrier. And the difference increases with scale!

    XMPP is the absolute best solution to multiply small servers, a very good thing for a healthy federation.

    [–] whelk@retrolemmy.com 1 points 1 hour ago

    Appreciate the info, thanks for taking the time to reply. I loved when Google was using XMPP for their chat just because that meant I could chat with people who insisted on using their Google accounts, without having to use one myself

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    [–] tabular@lemmy.world 37 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

    I refuse to verify my age with a face scan or government ID for an online account/profile.. It's too easy to imagine how fucked up that will go.

    The more I delete profiles to platforms with ~~unwanted~~ disturbing features the more recluse I become. It must look to acquaintances that I don't care to speak (to them) but what can I do? I cannot imagine convincing even computer-literate friends to switch to something - as they will have the same problem.

    Do I need to retire my Discord gaming server before I'm locked out of controlling it?

    [–] goatinspace@feddit.org 96 points 13 hours ago

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