- Discord Age Verification Plans Push Users To Alternative Platforms
- Stoat, formerly known as Revolt, has capacity issues to cope with an influx of Discord leavers
- Discord appears to be sticking to its plan to adopt global age verification measures in March.
Discord hasn’t done itself any favors so far this year, with plans to implement age verification measures globally on the platform in March, following the policy’s introduction for UK users due to the Online Safety Act. These changes will still be expected in a few weeks, but their impact is already clear.
As Destructoid reports, an alternative Discord platform, Stoat, is facing capacity issues due to large numbers of Discord users leaving the service to avoid these age verification plans.
Stoat’s status page says performance on the social platform has declined, with a note saying: “There are just too many people, but we’re doing our best.” »
It’s worth noting that Stoat was previously called Revolt, but rebranded in 2025, retaining the same team and app interface.
Luckily for those flocking to Stoat, the interface is similar to Discord’s, but with the benefit of free themes and customizations (whereas with Discord this is locked behind the Nitro subscription paywall).
Battle of the Discord Deserters
Although servers and voice chats are available on Stoat, there are no screen sharing options, which could be a problem for many (I know it is for me).
That hasn’t stopped a flood of people from joining the platform, however, and with Discord showing no signs of canceling its identity verification plans, we’ll likely see more defectors heading to various alternative services (such as Root).
There will likely be quite a battle for the attention of those fleeing Discord.
While identity verification is not mandatory, those who do not undergo the process will have “teen default” settings, which limits a number of facets of the Discord experience and is far from ideal.
The other part of the controversy here, of course, is the Discord data breach in 2025. This has left some people understandably skeptical, with trust issues around handing over personal data, and many don’t seem to want to take the risk.
The question is: at what point might the number of exiting members cause Discord to rethink its current stance on identity verification?
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