After user protests: Discord distances itself from age verification partner

The anger surrounding the introduction of age verification on Discord continues. After a flood of negative reactions from users, the social media platform is now distancing itself from Persona, a provider of age verification services. Discord conducted “a limited test of Persona in the UK.” In Australia and Great Britain, age verification had already been introduced last year. “(T)his test has now concluded.” This was stated by Discord's Head of Product Policy, Savannah Badalich, in an email to the US tech portal The Verge.

At the beginning of February, Discord announced that it would introduce age verification on its platform in March. All new and existing user accounts worldwide would then be automatically set to a “youth-friendly experience with updated communication settings, restricted access to age-restricted areas, and content filters,” the company said. For full access to all content on the platform, a facial scan or the submission of an ID might be necessary.

After protests from users, Discord retracted just a few days later. A facial scan or the submission of an ID document would only be necessary for a minority of users, it was now stated. An AI model would automatically estimate the age of most users.

Criticism of partnership with Persona

But the anger continued to boil. Because of the partnership with Persona, users accused Discord on social media of having “lied” regarding the handling of facial scans and ID uploads. According to The Verge, an archived version of Discord's support page stated that users in Great Britain “might be part of an experiment” in which their age verification data is processed via Persona. The upset users referred to Persona's privacy policy, which states that the company can obtain users' personal data through “databases of third parties, government records, and other publicly available sources.”

According to an archived version of the website, Discord removed the mention of Persona from its support page around February 15, The Verge further reports. Speaking to the tech portal Ars Technica, Rick Song, CEO of Persona, explained that his company deleted the information collected by Discord during the test immediately after verification.

Age verification using k-ID

Furthermore, Discord has only specified the use of k-ID for age verification. k-ID is a compliance platform specializing in security and privacy solutions for digital platforms. It enables age estimation using facial scans and can support the verification of identity documents by a company called Veratad, writes The Verge. Discord claims that the technology used for facial scans for age estimation runs locally on the user's device without the video selfie being uploaded. Images of identity documents and ID-match selfies are deleted immediately after the age group confirmation, and the video selfie used for facial age estimation never leaves the user's device. “We regularly evaluate our partner providers to improve our age verification and expand options for users, prioritizing privacy,” Badalich told The Verge.

According to Discord, the “vast majority” of users do not need to verify their age on the platform anyway. Either because the age estimation machine learning model used, based on existing account information, device, and activity data, determines that this is not necessary, or because they do not access settings or content that require age verification.

(akn)