Discord’s Age Verification Launch Linked to Peter Thiel of Palantir

Last July marked the deadline for major digital platforms to align with the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA). In a bid to shield minors from content labeled as ‘harmful’ by the government, platforms like Reddit, Spotify, and X implemented stricter age verification measures, including facial recognition and government ID checks. Among those struggling to comply was Discord, whose verification system has proven easy to bypass and vulnerable to breaches, with one significant incident exposing the IDs of around 70,000 users shortly after its introduction. Now, Discord is set to enforce age verification on a global scale, potentially partnering with a controversial firm to achieve this.

While the rollout is slated for March, reports indicate that some Discord users have already been prompted for new age verification using the third-party service Persona. Founded in 2018, Persona specializes in identity verification and anti-fraud technologies. Since the OSA’s implementation, they have been busy verifying user identities across platforms like Reddit and Roblox. However, a point of contention is the backing of Persona by Peter Thiel, co-founder of the surveillance firm Palantir.

One of Persona’s major investors is the Founders Fund, which valued the company at $1.5 billion and raised $150 million for it in 2021. The Founders Fund, established in the mid-2000s, has made significant early investments in companies like SpaceX, Airbnb, OpenAI, and Polymarket—essentially the tech giants reshaping our world. And who’s behind this financial clout? None other than Peter Thiel, a figure often criticized for his controversial views.

Thiel is known for his role as a co-founder of PayPal and his close ties to Palantir, a company focused on digital surveillance and user data exploitation. Palantir, named after the magical artifact from *Lord of the Rings*, has been active since 2003 and has recently been in the spotlight for developing ELITE, a tool designed to monitor user data for ICE operations. Additionally, recent revelations about Epstein’s emails showed ongoing communication between Thiel’s data brokerage and the infamous sex trafficker, discussing legal strategies and global influence.

The Founders Fund’s involvement in expanding data collection on Discord, a platform known for its relatively private conversations, has left users feeling uneasy. Discord has not clearly outlined how it plans to implement its age verification process, mentioning a combination of mandatory scans and using existing user data to estimate ages—great news for those who communicate through *Simpsons* quotes.

In an official update, Discord stated that users receiving prompts from Persona are part of ‘an experiment’ and that the data collected will only be stored for seven days. The long-term use of this technology remains uncertain. When approached for comment, Discord described its collaboration with Persona as a “limited test” that has since concluded.

Regardless, I’ll see you on the forums.