Discord age restrictions prevent an underage user from viewing - but not sending - nude pictures.
This isn't to protect kids. It's to enforce increasingly authoritarian control over the web.
this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2026
888 points (99.3% liked)
Technology
82460 readers
3006 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Discord probably did the math and are willing to take a hit to the user counts (much like reddit did when they closed the apis), as the vast majority will stay and keep "threatening" to leave. There's at least the hope that the ones who quit now will establish communities elsewhere, on a (hopefully) better server platform.
Enshittification is not single step. It's more a "boiling a frog"-kinda process.
Discord itself was a big step of enshittification from the very start when communities moved from individual platforms to Discord servers.
Sometimes I like to remember when Nitro was like 5 bucks and gave a bunch of stuff, and now it is 10 bucks gives less AND they still try to sell me fucking cosmetics...
I dropped my Nitro when they announced a possible buyout/IPO
It probably also says something of the ones that stay: they can keep getting further exploited. And these are the ones they want.
Same tactic used by scammers sending "bad" messages - it's at least partially in purpose to single out the good marks.
Yep. It's why trumpers are such a lucrative scam target. It's a self selected group of easily deceived victims.
Discord probably did the math and are willing to take a hit to the user counts
I very much doubt whoever thought about doing the math did so, and if they did, that said math made it out of their department. This kind of decision is much more likely to have been a C-suite darling that no one dared speak against or the equivalent thereof.
I’m saying thoughtful organizational decisions are less common than we’d like.
I agree, but, I see some parallels, a Reddit competitor that solved some of those issues, was hardly functional when they killed APIs. There was no competition. Look at us now baby! Still not competition, but, at least there’s an alternative.
I hope I can say the same about discord in a bit. There’s really nowhere for anyone to go, without losing a lot of features. Well, hopefully, talented people are going to migrate to these platforms to bring an alternative to discord.
load more comments
(13 replies)
Here's hoping this gets more software off the discord support teat. No, you do not need real time chat, you need searchable, permanent presence. Discord support is such a red flag I immediately move on even if it's OSS. If you can't do real doco and you can't stand up a forum (Discourse is nice I hear) then what chance do you have of being competent.
Also, IPO incoming, expect it to get worse.
Also, IPO incoming, expect it to get worse.
Is it? Ah, well that would explain it.
load more comments
(2 replies)
Why do adults have to suffer because parents don’t know how to control their kids?
Because it's not actually about the kids, the kids are just the excuse. That's all they ever are.
Account deleted. Fuck em. Was already pissed with their restrictions with nitro.
Maybe people will finally realize discord isn't the place for your projects documentation to exist
load more comments
(7 replies)
Good! locking away potentially helpful Q&A, discussions, and guides on Discord is fucking stupid.
I hope this means people will slowly start going back to forums. Highly doubt it though.
Discord really is a plague for the open internet yep
I just want to be able to web search shit from forums like I used to be able to 10+ years ago.
load more comments
(18 replies)
So happy. Discord sucks.
Yeah, I agree. I hope Discord both fails as a company and as a concept.
Information siloed inside a non-easily searchable interface? No thank you.
Worried about the children while protecting thousands of paedophiles that raped children. (The governments, not discord)
Regardless, fuck discord and instead of "threatening" an exodus, why doesn't everybody register with xmpp or mumble and figure it out from there. Crazy staying on discord from here on.
The problem is finding a good alternative immediately. I don't mind to hop and check out multiple services, but some of my friends wants to just install one thing and be done.
My checklist is not too much either, but for some reason video calling is not something included with the lot of them.
Self-hosting a matrix instance might be an okay alternative. And because its decentralized its not really possible for it to have top-down age verification imposed on it, if it ever does get popular
load more comments
(3 replies)
load more comments
(11 replies)
TIL people actually pay for nitro lol.
I've probably paid around 100€/$ in total (been occasionally using and gifting Nitro since 2019 and regularly for about a year). I'll definitely stop it and using Discord if they follow through with this.
load more comments
(4 replies)
Sadly, but another good platform has rotten.
Discord thinks that it is important. Good news that it isn't. And even if there is no good substitute, then it is possible to abandon Discord by just quitting and not looking for any alternatives. Like if your local market stopped having aubergines then you can just stop even wanting them. Not a big deal.
Not a big deal to you
There are other people in the world that live different lives than you. Some of us use it as a primary messaging platform. It's how I talk to most friends and family
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(15 replies)
Sadly I think the end result of this won't be people leaving discord, but people giving up liberties because it's easier than fighting it
And they're banking on that, it's part of why they intentionally gave zero warning...1 month is nothing.
With more time a dedicated set of people could pull the alternatives up into solid real options
Or kick up such a huge ruckus that discord back down and undo it.
This was a very intentional and malicious choice to go "oh, yeah we're doing this next month, kthnxbye"
load more comments
(3 replies)
Do it, pussies. I remember when sites would actually topple when they made poor decisions.
I could just be me being a doomer, but I doubt any significant exodus will happen. People really about to drop discord? Right…
load more comments
(6 replies)
I deleted my Discord account last night. Good riddance.
I'm not threatening, I'm gonna do it. We'll see how my game jams go after this. I doubt my entire community will follow me.
Edit: I downloaded Element X for Matrix, and it seems to only be capable of creating a single chat similar to WhatsApp. Tried to download Revolt, and I cant get that one to even send me a verification code to my email. Starting of strong here...
load more comments
(7 replies)
sure they're leaving but...where? what's a viable alternative?
I mean if I had it my way everyone would just go back to IRC, I still use IRC. it's great, nothings changed, it's perfect. combine that with like mumble or teamspeak and you're good to go.
I checked out Stoat lastnight and it's very slow. took well over an hour to get a verification email (I assume because many others were signing up) and the current server offerings are minimal. Also a good majority of the themes listed simply don't work. it's growing and I'd say it's the best alternative right now but it's not there yet and I worry it or the various instances of it could hold up if there was a massive Discord exodus.
Matrix is a no and xmpp ain't much better.
load more comments
(5 replies)
How hard is this type of service, as a self hosted docker app, to develop?
Wouldn’t most of the underlying codec and streaming technologies be more or less extendable into a platform?
load more comments
(5 replies)
I abandoned WhatsApp for Discord after meta got its greedy hooks into it. Do they think people won't just make a new account elsewhere and move on? Millennials have done it every two years ever since MySpace imploded after Fox News' Rupert Murdoch bought it. We have been conditioned to let our accounts go.
(Also text messaging, group chats, phone calls, and video calls are things that come standard on smartphones without need of an app. Texting stupid memes to everyone I know has never been easier. Maybe it's my age, but everyone I regularly talk to on discord is also in my phone. Oh noes, I'll have to "text" instead of "chat." The horror.)
load more comments
(4 replies)
view more: next ›