Last July was the cut-off date for major digital platforms to comply with the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA). In an attempt to block access between minors and material deemed ‘harmful’ by the government, platforms like Reddit, Spotify and X began tougher age verification for its users, such as facial scans or even government ID. At the top of those stumbling to do so was Discord, whose system is not only easy to game but not impossible to compromise, with one major security breach exposing some 70,000 users’ ID shortly after. Now Discord is looking to enforce age verification globally. A firm Discord at one point worked with to do so may be even more controversial than the decision itself.
While the roll-out is aimed for March, PC Gamer reports that some Discord users have already been prompted for new age verification, this time using the third party service Persona. Started in 2018, Persona develops identity detection and anti-fraud technologies. They’ve been having an absolute field day since the OSA, being implemented to verify user ID across Reddit and Roblox. One sticking point, however, is who’s backing the company: Peter Thiel, the cofounder of ICE-approved surveillance firm Palantir.
managed to catch it pic.twitter.com/Yyu0FaoDJ7
— Folf (@itsfolf) February 12, 2026
One of Persona’s biggest investors is the Founders Fund, valuing the company at $1.5 billion and rallying $150 million towards it in 2021. The Founders Fund began in the mid-2000s and made key early investments in the likes of SpaceX, AirBNB, OpenAI and Polymarket. All your favorite tech things “disrupting” the modern world. And who would unleash such a monetary power unto civilization? Why none other than your friend and mine, the anti-humanist, anti-Christ awaiting Thiel.
Thiel, of course, is known for many things. A co-founder of PayPal, Thiel is now more closely affiliated with Palantir, a company specializing in digital surveillance and exploiting user information. Palantir, named after the magic rock used to try and kill Frodo in Lord of the Rings, has been around since 2003 but has kept plenty busy lately. 404 uncovered how the company has been developing ELITE, an instrument to monitor user information for the purpose of conducting ICE raids. Elsewhere, the recent, massive disclosure of Epstein emails had reoccurring correspondence between the world’s most active user information broker to the world’s most famous sex trafficker. The two discussed the lawsuit to end Gawker and how to best balkanize the planet.
Having the Founders Fund so close to expanded data capturing across Discord, one of the more private places to have a public conversation online, has made users a little itchy. The platform has not been entirely clear how it aims to rapidly expand its age verification process, stating a mix of mandatory scanning but also using existing user data to guesstimate if a user is in their 30s (which is great news for everyone who communicates through Simpsons quotes).
In an official update, Discord suggested users who encountered prompts from Persona are part of ‘an experiment’ and that the information will only be stored for seven days. How the tech will be used in the long term is yet to be known. When asked for comment, Discord told Kotaku its work with Persona was part of a “limited test” which has since been concluded.
Regardless, I will see you on the forums.
