Discord has announced that it's rolling out age verification checks globally from March – and the decision has sparked fury from many privacy-conscious users.
I heard sharkord allows for self-host. It’s super early in development, but it’s browser based for now, and I think if more people get on board and improve it, it’d be a pretty good alternative.
It’s from everywhere tbh. But the EU is certainly the largest, most forceful block in getting age verification pushed through.
The only upside is that the EU proposal demands ZKP, whereas all others are happy to accept/prefer “prove who you are”. That’s obviously an insane privacy nightmare.
You’ve missed some news my friend, it’s an EU problem too, just the legal and privacy lawyers are fighting much harder so it keeps getting pushed away from going into law.
In no particular order, and not all are EU or FOSS But most are FOSS. I think only the first 6 are both EU and FOSS clients.
I may not have marked all of the Self Hosted ones, but I think I did.
How many of these can handle 5-10 people in a voice chat?
Cause I use Discord weekly for running and playing TTRPGs, over voice, occasionally doing screensharing when one or more of the players are having issues with their PC
So anyone who knows some good altenatives that are either FOSS or EU based?
I heard sharkord allows for self-host. It’s super early in development, but it’s browser based for now, and I think if more people get on board and improve it, it’d be a pretty good alternative.
This entire problem is because of the EU… So finding something EU based isn’t a valid solution.
Making you aware that the age requirement probably comes from the EU. Seeking another EU based solution might introduce the same requirement.
it’s from the uk and texas.
It’s from everywhere tbh. But the EU is certainly the largest, most forceful block in getting age verification pushed through.
The only upside is that the EU proposal demands ZKP, whereas all others are happy to accept/prefer “prove who you are”. That’s obviously an insane privacy nightmare.
the eu hasn’t put anything to law yet, which at least the uk has. but yeah, of course they’re not blameless.
and Australia
You’ve missed some news my friend, it’s an EU problem too, just the legal and privacy lawyers are fighting much harder so it keeps getting pushed away from going into law.
I’ll try and find some links for you in a sec.Edit: link - https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20251120IPR31496/children-should-be-at-least-16-to-access-social-media-say-meps
of course it’s an eu problem too, but it was the uk that pushed through undercooked regulation that forced everyone to comply.
Cool, but you did say it’s not an EU problem
no i didn’t, i simply noted that the uk and texas had implemented age gating laws.
In no particular order, and not all are EU or FOSS But most are FOSS. I think only the first 6 are both EU and FOSS clients. I may not have marked all of the Self Hosted ones, but I think I did.
https://www.mumble.info/
https://movim.eu/
https://twake-chat.com/
https://sylkserver.com/
https://fusion.privmx.com/en
https://matrix.org/ecosystem/clients/matrix-commander/
https://fluxer.app/ (self hosted)
https://a.weird.one/
https://zulip.com/
https://sharkord.com/ (self hosted)
https://spacebar.chat/
https://element.io/en
https://teamspeak.de/
https://stoat.chat/ (self hosted)
https://jami.net/
https://www.rocket.chat/
https://mattermost.com/
https://xmpp.org/ - https://roguesecurity.dev/blog/xmpp
How many of these can handle 5-10 people in a voice chat?
Cause I use Discord weekly for running and playing TTRPGs, over voice, occasionally doing screensharing when one or more of the players are having issues with their PC
I think Zulip and Kahla do, not sure about which others, but a quick visit to each site should let you know whatever you need.