Discord cuts ties with Peter Thiel-backed verification software after its code was found tied to US surveillance efforts
Discord cut ties with its age-verification partner after exposed code fueled federal-reporting concerns, months after a breach hit 70,000 users.
https://fortune.com/2026/02/24/discord-peter-thiel-backed-persona-identity-verification-breach/Open linkView original on fedia.io1204
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Discord: Sorry, we spied and report on you through software from a bad company. Be assured, we will spy and report on you through good company software from now on!
A nothingburger apology that follows the same patterns every company does
Introduce outrageous thing
Apologize
delay outrageous thing by a few months and hope people forgot about it, then do it again
Also governments.
Almost like they're run by the same fucks. Huh.
It's also AFTER their IPO, so the owners can cash in beforehand
[Insert South Park "We're Sorry" scene here]
Also, given the state of affairs and the lack of trust, I dont believe they are cutting them off. Assume the worst and do what you can to decouple from the platform I dont expect people to quit cold-turkey, but put in the effort, it takes a long time to degoogle yourself and given how ubiquitous discord was during the plague, I dont fault people for making sure lines of communication and contacts arnt broken.
I tried hosting my own TS server recently and it's easy as shit. Not as many features sure, but it's so snappy and it just works. Ideally I'd move to mumble and host it on some old laptop but as a backup thing I can't complain
Teamspeak requires you to pay for a license to host a community of greater than 32 people though. I have much more faith in Fluxer, which just came out recently and has its servers getting hammered right now. It will have true self-hosting and federation. Also it looks exactly like Discord which probably makes moving to it easier.
https://matrix.org/ has been around for years and has had true self-hosting and federation from the start.
Matrix is lacking all sorts of features and proper UX. I used it through multiple front-ends and every time it's just not good enough yet.
What features would you want to see, currently my only gripe is that the screen sharing doesn't stream audio
https://github.com/fluxerapp/fluxer
Neat
Maybe I can spin something up for family to use instead of SMS.
Check out the snikket server/app, it's a complete setup that uses an XMPP server and clients with a focus on families and close friends
Ive already got xmpp, its more a client thing for them I think.
The discord-esque look I think works. Though if you've got a client rec for xmpp with a similar feel, for that I'm all ears.
on desktop I tried gajim and it was good
on android snikket has an official client, it is a fork of conversations.im (they fork it so the client as the same name in every platform to avoid confusing users) i haven't found a client for android/ios that matches discord feel tho
edit: forgot to say snikket is also on ios
Ive hosted my own TS3 server for well over a decade and matrix was spooled up this past year. They both are good products and server their roles, but they dont line up 100% with Discord and its user reach.
I am hopefull TS6 gets the funding it needs to get out of beta and I wish the Fluxer dev the best (they are going to need it).
What this whole discord debacle needs to teach people is how to be independent regarding your communications, data and their storage.
Peter thiel is everything wrong with the world.
He is a plague, a cancer, a curse.
He is in the Epstein files.
He likely had his gay lover killed for revealing he was gay.
Peter thiel is the enemy of humanity.
Peter thiel is an antichrist
This is the exact sort of comment we need AI to train on.
at least it is probably already trained on the south park episodes dedicated to him in the last season
Epstein to Thiel in emails after brexit happened:
I would have never guessed that I'd entertain the conspiracy that there's a doomsday cabal running the world but here we are.
In america they are know as the new apostolic Reformation or the Seven Mountain Mandate/7M/7MM. And yes, their goal is Armageddon. And yes, mike Johnson, ted Cruz and father, boebert, Michael Flynn, Roger Stone, and dozens of other Republicans and influential and powerful people on the far right spectrum are members of or closely associated with these groups. And many of the outsider types have been quietly given government positions.
Of special note is Paula White, trump's "spiritual advisor"
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/day6/how-a-conservative-christian-movement-became-an-important-part-of-trump-s-political-strategy-1.5874143
https://theconversation.com/new-apostolic-reformation-evangelicals-see-trump-as-gods-warrior-in-their-battle-to-win-america-from-satanic-forces-and-christianize-it-243002
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Apostolic_Reformation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Mountain_Mandate
Crazy, all of these people should be permanently imprisoned
Reminder: this changes nothing in their age verification requirements or telemetry gathering and training off your data/habits. They’re just going to use another invasive third party.
Where did you move? We're planning on stoat for our little server
Yeah I'm sure they had absolutely no idea before. Because Peter Thiel such a trusted and reputable name, how could they possibly known that doing business with him would be negatively construed?
I'm absolutely deleting my discord account once they update it with the age verification. The matrix protocol is a reasonable alternative https://joinmatrix.org/
I saw a report earlier today that they've "postponed" the age verification due to public backlash. If they DO implement it, I'm gone.
Not saying that's what's going to happen. Just keep that in mind and maybe use this time to explore some other options. That usually doesn't hurt and if push comes to shove moving won't be as painful.
Generally if possible diversifying is usually a good thing no matter what.
You do realize they already get all your data and such right? Discord openly admitted that when theyr pr Department went out and said; "But hey! This won't even matter to those who've had an account for several years. We already have enough data on you guys to verify your age!"
That is still very different than giving them access to my facial data or government id
And you know they don't have, how? They litterally track everything.
Because I've never uploaded my face or a picture or my ID before? They don't just magically pull that from the ether.
You mean to tell me you don't have social media, or never had a video call on their platform? You don't own a webcam or laptop with such?
Yes. I do mean to tell you all those things.
Why not today? They’ve already shown their true colours. That’s the bar they set=> EXPECT them to keep that bar there and lower it eventually.
Show me an example of a big corporation that has backpedaled and then started acting wholesome from then on. You might find, maybe one or two for the time being.
They are not your friends.
Yea I'll do it today, I need to send a couple messages to friends who I only have contact with through there though. Basically if they want to continue communicating where to find me.
Gud on ya! 🫡
We should pretty much assume that all age verification efforts either currently are feeding into surveillance efforts, or will be bought out by surveillance companies.
Exactly. Even if a smaller company is running ID verification now there's a very good chance they'll be bought up by a monster later and take all that data with them.
What a load of shit.
"Company cuts ties with leopard after customers notice leopard".
At this point, as a tech industry insider, you don't partner with the likes of Thiel or Karp without fully understanding who you're getting into bed with, or why.
Yeah, they are only cutting ties due to the attention. They'll replace it with something just as bad, or worse.
Yeah, they’re doing the right thing here as a PR move, they may have known about the shady bullshit or they might not have but if they didn’t I bet they didn’t even ask or care in any way.
Still time to find discord alternatives, luckily the landscape of alternatives seems a bit better than I expected.
Smoke in mirrors. I'm calling bullshit. Thiel will probably get all the info and blackmail everyone later.
Smoke and mirrors mate. Hard agree though, it all goes into storage to weaponise later.
Bad thing is we're not immune in Lemmy. Sometimes I wonder if my 900 security counter measures ever leak. I tried to go to a site to test it one time, but my features were so tight that I couldn't even load the test page. At least it's worth less to them than data off Facebook with some anonymity.
He already got it. That's the only reason a company "backpedals". Saying this shit is only to save face so no one leaves. You know, because we're all stupid and believe everything rich people teal us.
That's cool, still leaving though.
I ain't submitting my ID to anyone over the internet.
This is a place of anonymity, not for proclaiming from the rooftops who I am on here.
Too late Discord. I will never come back.
Same, i finally got my friend group to switch to something else. Currently trying out element
... cuts ties for the time being
Well, I don't believe you.
Also, you should learn what trust is and how that works.
Trust isn't on then now. They won't learn what it means until the customer demonstrates what trust means. The trust is gone on our side so leave the platform. Rip the bandaid off. Get off social media. Get off shitty streaming services.
Do it and do it now.
You're preaching to the choir here.
Got it, cancelling my Netflix now, that will show er... discord? Somehow.
I get what you're saying, but I also don't pay for discord, so it's not like they'll care if I disappear.
Discord gets paid for user's data and they just lost a ton of users. That's why they are "cutting ties" with Persona.
I suspect its more of a temporary reaction and they will reframe this age-verification and the related data collection and try again later.
This. People seem to think that if they don’t pay for a service or click on ads on social sites, then they aren’t contributing to the company’s revenue. They fail to realize that THEY themselves are the product being sold. The sites/services and the interactions people have on them are merely a byproduct of the business model which is selling people’s data. The only way to win is to not play.
Yes. I have a hard no for participating willingly in expansion of mass surveillance, censorship and propaganda.
And that’s ultimately what this move supports. It was no surprise to find out all the shady aspects following the announcement, but I had already burned Discord out of my life the day they announced their genius idea.
Its my enshittification red line. I will quit your product without hesitation and find another way. I will never go back
I believe it actually does matter. Every person using Discord brings their friends onto the platform. Users leaving will probably also lead to others in their bubble leaving/following to an alternative.
So lots of people leaving has a bigger effect than just that set of users being absent. Even if you didn't pay for Nitro, some of your friends might have and may stop now.
You clearly don't get what I'm saying.
I think you’re missing the point. The idea isn’t that leaving Netflix would affect discord; but rather that we should tie an exodus from discord to the rest of the de-cloud movement.
In other words, quitting discord won’t solve the root cause of why discord went to shit. The root cause are cartel-like cloud companies that are trying to gain leverage over society as large. The only way to reasonably solve it is to stop participating.
You seem to have no clue of Discord's business model - and those of other data scraping companies.
With guys like this you don't need to find secret surveillance shit, you just need to assume it.
It's fucking Peter Thiel. They should know he is radioactive.
They probably did, but didn't care. They only started "caring" because it made the news
Yup, but some companies gotta learn the hard way that you can't snake people like that and expect them to come back.
Tech CEOs don't live in the same world as the rest of us. Maybe when the AI bubble pops they'll finally realise that it might be good idea to have some actual humans working in the company C suite. Rather than repeatedly hiring from the same pod person pool of recycled MBA executives.
Too late lol,already deleted my 10+ year old discord
If you really cared and could delete it without problem, it would have been deleted way earlier, no?
I have a hard time believing people actually do these things.
Nah, it gave me 10 different things I had to do before deleting my account. Also, no. I have my limit and it crossed when they chose to implement facial ID. I am missing it still, I am looking for something to fill the open group discussion it had for me.
That's the hard part really, finding a new group chat platform.
My friends and I are switching to Matrix but finding a community there is gonna be a bit tough.
We all become too dependent on Discord and now we're paying the price when we try to leave.
Create your own community (aka - matrix space/room), set up end-to-end encryption, start the invites. https://matrix.org/docs/chat_basics/private-group-chat/
Otherwise, to find existing rooms, I've relied on this in the past: https://matrixrooms.info/
That’s really nice! I went ahead and setup Element on all my devices as well, but I’m not as enthusiastic. Most people won’t bother changing. It was a pain to make people move from WhatsApp / iMessage to Signal already
The problem is how will you do for most services and websites? They have support on discord for the most part (especially for coding stuff, or games)
I don't mind asking for alternatives. Once I put my foot down I'll just work around it
That’s nice, congrats for your dedication
It was hard enough getting new contacts to install it and stay connected.
Posted notices that I was shutting it down. Added links to a web page and a telegram channel.
I personally just pulled the plug. Whoever might have cared can msg me through any of the other accounts
Nah, don't believe it. Reason: money
Too late.
Doubt.
Too little, too late.
Why create ties in the first place?
Not sure if I should upvote people fixing a obvious, terrible problem that they created themselves.
Whoops we accidentally picked something that will give the government your data. That wasn't our intention. Instead we're going to use an independent service so the government will have to buy it from us.
Is it just me or does this (the push for removing online anonymity) feel like part of a bigger move to push people into further insulated groups and prevent social cohesion?
Almost like there's a push from powerful people to get this passed as soon as possible
Once the right have managed to get this law passed, they'll go back to not caring about the kids again. It's infuriating now often they get away with this scam.
I was a kid back when most adults thought that computers what operated by tiny pixies and computer mice had three buttons. We had a content filter on the school computers that could be circumvented by not typing www. at the beginning of a URL. I could have seen all sorts of inappropriate content if I had wanted, but I didn't because I was 12 so I just used it to play RuneScape. The kids are alright, it's the adults that are all messed up.
Yes but also these people, especially the likes of Donald Trump, don't really understand how the world works so all their plans for controlling it never come off, because things that would be blindingly obvious to most people, are utterly obtrused to them.
You know like the idea that people would just not use privacy invading applications. How many people do you think have actually submitted their IDs versus have just downloaded a VPN or convented their controls in other ways? Then they'll make VPNs illegal and think that they've in some way achieved something, but they will always be a workaround for their authority, because the people they are trying to control are smarter than them.
I'm with you. Made a comment recently, here or elsewhere, that a huge thing to happen with social spaces over time is that trustworthy sources of information have a chance to really prove themselves as such. So when you rip apart one platform and scatter its users, you destroy that earned credibility and leave a lot of people without at least some of their reliable news sources. That's most harmful to people looking for actual truth, since people willing to swallow comfortable lies don't really need the providers of information to be vetted.
The conclusion to all this is that keeping social platforms from building large, long-term communities is a very effective way to keep people who seek truth from finding it.
I've not really ever had any cohesion on the platforms I use anonymously anyway. I just like having places to talk about shit without any judgement that would be linked to my identity. Gonna miss that if this shit takes off but going outside more will probably do me some good.
nice try, but you will try to reintroduce it under another name. ALso the anti-christ thiel wont be happy.
Funny part is everyone was already saying this when Discord mentioned age verification and Discord was acting like their heads were in the sand. It wasn't until mass exodus and people canceling Nitro that they finally did something.
Trump, thiel, musk - all their dads were Nazis.
Trump's dad hated black people and sheltered Nazis and the KKK, Thiel's dad is from a Nazi town in South Africa, Musk's father and grandfather went to South Africa just for the racism.
They're all stuck in that, and catching feelings because of it.
Discord is fucked. You love to see it.
Too late hahahaha
I deleted Discord and will not return.
Already deleted my account. Not going back.
Too fuckin bad Discord. Damage is done.
I dunno. The current state of the world might be making me more conspiracy-minded, but this feels like it was always part of the plan.
Introduce surveillance tech that Peter Thiel can use to spy/sell/whatever, announce that you're using it, expecting people to get angry, and now in the 11th hour, after harvesting all the data they get to announce "we're removing the evil software! We're the good guys again!"
I recognize that the current state of affairs is having me see demons everywhere, but I just can't bring myself to give discord a pat on the back.
It's worse than that. They've said what they want to do and they want to get rid of democracy in place of a technocracy surveillance state.
Too little too late fuck you discord.
This reminded me a whole lot of OnlyFans deciding to ban porn.
Just... stupid.
What uhh... What did they expect people to use it for?
Conceptually, it's always supposed to have been something akin to Patreon, where creators can be supported by fans via a subscription model. A combination of lax rules around nudity and probably sheer inertia meant that "creators" ended up being pretty much only sex workers. OF then tried to pivot away from that and we all knows how well that went.
No idea. :D
Suuuurrrrrreeeee. They will probably just setup a shell company or whatever they do. These rats don't just give up and go home.
I wish the UK government would fuck this off as well. Giving that creep the entire NHS health data backlog was a move of utter stupidity.
Too fucking late time to migrate.
Oops, you caught us, we’re sorry! We promise not to do it again! (In the next 3-6 months, restrictions apply, refer to your EULA for details)
Discord, the idiots who were bout to face id us?
Thiel is in the Epstein files, literally is funding the destruction of our democracy and all democracies worldwide everyone Thiel should be arrested and charged with treason and sent to the hauge and be tried for crimes against humanity
Not just in them, good friends with Epstein and conspired with him to destabilise the west.
Deleted my discord rooms, left every room i was in, requested my acct deleted, uninstalled from every device. Moved to matrix & fluxer.
Poor discord
Too late! I'm moving to Fluxer!
The fact they ever considered something affiliated with Peter Thiel in the first place is enough to abandon Discord.
But Peter Theil knows about the anti-christ!
Who else is using Peter Thiels crap?
Robinhood uses Persona.
Is that some new hip social media app that I am not gen alpha enough to understand. I've only managed to get as far as Fortnite.
Identity verification service.
Anything Thiel touches is compromised. All he does is steal your data so he can use it too brainwash you..
CEO from mossad family. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humam_Sakhnini
I went back to IRC a couple of weeks ago and it's been such a breath of fresh air to use good technology again.
Matrix might be worth a try too. It's kind of like a modernized IRC with limited discord-like functionality.
Stoat also seems pretty good, though it's more centralized than I'd like.
I think stoat would be viable of they had voice chat working with their self hosting option but yeah, right now it's a no for me because of that.
*after people found out it was tied to USA surveillance
Again? I swear I read the same headline earlier this month.
Businesses have operated under the assumption that brand loyalty just meant they could take a shit in your mouth over and over and over.
Fuck these businesses and fuck their piss poor anti consumer bullshit.
Too late. Fuck Discord. I’ll just text my frie… oh wait…maybe we should start investing in messenger birds again?
Join matrix I’ve found it does everything I wanted from discord without its added bloat and memory useage
Damage is already done. Greetings from [matrix].
Discord publicly cut ties. What could they possibly do to convince us that it was legit?
Cut ties huh? Isn't he their main VC investor?
Why isn’t this disgusting criminal in prison?
Because money
Money he stole from taxpayers
https://youtu.be/FjON651woDE?t=73
Color me fucking surprised
just FYI is any of you just need to step out of discord and already use steam, you can migrate to a steam group chat, they even have dedicated channels for text or voice
that's my backup while i check some selfhosted options
I don't believe that.
Am I the only going back to IRC? I'm not a gamer so I just use it for chat and setting up my own irc was straight forward. Even set up a webui for my friends who don't know how navigate irc through regular clients.
did it really though?
did it really?
for some reason I've got the "oh you aren't???" mashed up with that anakin with the ridiculous breasts meme
https://youtu.be/XwrJUn4ViaU
These corporations just keep giving me new reasons to reference this bit from Pat Boivin!
Peter Theil doesn't seem driven by religion to me... He sees religion as a tool, like all powerful people.
What does that have to do with his religious beliefs?
something something this user thinks israel is the same as judaism and therefore israel is the defacto jewish state and dealing with israel means you are a jew by relation? i'll just assume that's how this antisemite thinks
Folks that think that way are usually religious themselves and think religion is some kind of spell that makes people good or bad, They probably attribute the good things they do to their religion and the bad things they do to straying from their religion. Sad, simple shit. The exact sort of person Thiel uses.
FYI, this dude is a literal nazi.
wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow
Random aside, do you, by chance, believe that the made up concept of the aryan race is, in fact, superior?
Any answer other than an explicit “yes” or an explicit “no” will be interpreted as a “strong yes.”
America has been a surveillance state since 2002. also America controls Israel, not the other way around
i have yes. this is all evidence of the transnational oligarchy that fundamentally operates to support white supremacy abroad
yeah that's what transnational means
Who’s controlling it all, though? Tell us, please.
Edit: we see you, nazi scum fuck.
Says the nazi.
no. you've just crossed the line past anti-zionism to being uninformed on who pulls the strings in geopolitics and equating zionism to judaism. broadly speaking, lemmy is mostly anti-zionist with the exception of a couple instances (this one in particular i have some issues with which i won't get into here)
what's more is this line of thinking does work for israel, not against it. israel wants the world to think that they, and they alone, speak for people who look like me
I’ll say it again, FUCK ISRAEL.
FUCK ISRAEL
a little louder for the people in the back
Not according to Israel unfortunately
Fuck Israel.
At this point it's not a conspiracy to think Israel spreads the 'jews control everything' narrative so they can poison any discussion on the topic
W