Discord ends partnership with controversial age verification software, Twitch immediately says hold my beer and tells new affiliates to submit faces and IDs to the same service

Update, February 27: A Twitch spokesperson has sent the following statement to GamesRadar+ to clarify that Persona isn't being used by the platform for age verification, noting that it's "one of several tools within our payout verification process" which not many will have to use.

"Twitch uses a number of third-party tools to help verify a person's identity when processing payouts to creators," the statement begins. "This process is related specifically to payments, and is separate from age verification. Persona is not used by Twitch for age verification purposes.

"Persona is one of several tools used within our payout verification process, and only a very small percentage of Affiliates – in the low single digits – are ever routed through Persona. This has been the case for years and is not a recent change."

Update, February 24: Discord has clarified that it was already planning to cut ties with Persona, even before a report surfaced alleging that the age verification platform had links to the US government intelligence program, as it "was a limited test" to begin with.

"The test with Persona was always planned to have an end date – it was a limited test," Discord says in a statement to GamesRadar+. "We concluded the test on the schedule we always had in place. The conclusion of the test was not connected to reporting about broader surveillance efforts."

Original story:

Twitch is asking new affiliates to submit selfies and government IDs to the controversial age-verification platform Persona before they can receive their first payout. We say controversial, as Discord recently cut ties with Persona over its alleged links to the US government intelligence program.

Posting on Bluesky, streamer TawnyCodeCat alerted people to a change in Twitch's policy requiring some new affiliates to submit age verification documents, including a government ID and a selfie, to Persona to receive payments. They claim that when they asked Twitch Support for an alternative to age verification, they were told, "There isn't one."

Twitch is requiring new Affiliates, before their first payment, to give government photo ID and a separate photo to Persona, the same Persona that has connections to government mass surveillance programs. When I asked Twitch support for another option, they said there isn't one. #twitch #persona 1/4

— @tawnycodecat.bsky.social (@tawnycodecat.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-02-27T17:31:35.528Z

This is supported by an article on Twitch support that reads, "some streamers may be required to verify their identity before receiving their first payout. If your payout is on hold, you'll see a message in your Payout Eligibility Panel and receive email notifications with instructions to complete identity verification through Persona, Twitch's verification service."

When you click 'Learn More' next to this statement, it takes you to an FAQ that, very helpfully, doesn't mention anything about Persona or age verification. However, the above statement makes it clear that Twitch is using the controversial service.

Discord recently announced that its partnership with Persona had ended after less than a month. This followed security concerns raised on a blog post by a group of researchers, who found apparent links to the US government intelligence program in the platform's open-source code.

The conclusion of the report reads, "We didn't break anything. We didn't bypass anything… If that's enough to expose the architecture of a global surveillance platform, maybe the problem isn't us… If someone asks you to take a selfie to prove you're human, ask yourself who's on the other side of that camera, and what list you just landed on."

New Discord age verification system and filters will rely on oversight from mix of "AI validation and human review," because that always works