Discord just announced that starting next month, users will need to verify their age using a face scan or government ID to access the full platform. The stated reason is familiar: protecting minors and ensuring age-appropriate content.
On the surface, that sounds reasonable. Most people agree that kids should not be exposed to adult spaces online.
BUT here’s the the thing: These measures don’t just affect minors. They apply to everyone. Adults, long-time users, people who have done nothing wrong, all end up pulled into the same verification net. To participate fully, you are asked to hand over biometric data or official identification to a private platform.
Is it just me OR does this seem to be a growing pattern, you know, using safety is the justification. We started talking about this almost 5 years ago
Verification is the mechanism. And mass data collection becomes the side effect.
Even when companies promise that data is deleted, processed locally, or handled by third parties, the bigger question remains: Someone still has access to that data. YOU handed it over. It’s gone. So, here’s my question to the community:
Should access to online communities increasingly depend on proving who you are offline?
Where is the line between protecting minors and over-verifying adults?
With this the red line has been crossed already. Indeed this amounts to total mass surveillance and disrespect for privacy, when privacy is a fundamental right. People should wake up and rise up now, before it’s too late. Otherwise we all become “just another brick in the wall”.
Btw, this surveillance plan does not only affect Discord, but any other social media platform such as Facebook etc. Soon other platforms will follow, until every person on this planet can only use the internet with their personal ID (the mark of the beast ?) It’s literally Orwell on steroids. This plan must never be successful.
There is a website (still under construction) that will allow European users to check who is trying to identify them. It will be ready by the end of this year.
If I do not know who you are and I do not know what you are doing, then you have privacy.
If I know who you are but I do not know what you are doing, then you have privacy.
If I do not know who you are but I know what you are doing, then you have privacy.
If I know who you are AND I know what you are doing, then I can tie who you are to what you are doing and therefore control you based on what I now know about you.
