Discord delays rollout of age verification policy

Company postpones global changes in response to backlash over privacy fears.

- BY KAITLYN HUAMANI

LAST MONTH, Discord said it would use face scanning or requests for ID uploads to verify some users' ages.

(JEFF CHIU/Associated Press)

Discord, the popular platform for gamers to communicate online, is postponing its controversial age verification policy after swift backlash from users concerned about their privacy.

The global rollout of the system is now delayed to the second half of 2026, Discord’s Chief Technology Officer and co-founder Stanislav Vishnevskiy wrote in a Tuesday blog post acknowledging that the company “missed the mark.”

“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,” Vishnevskiy wrote. “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.”

Discord, which says it has more than 200 million active users, will continue to meet specific legal obligations it has for age verification of users, the company said, but the global expansion of age verification will come only after it makes changes to the initial policy it laid out in early February.

The company said last month that it would roll out an age verification policy in March that would include face scanning or requests for an ID upload for users it could not determine were adults.