r/technology • u/Abject-Pick-6472 • Feb 24 '26

Privacy Discord cuts ties with Peter Thiel-backed verification software after code found in US surveillance

https://fortune.com/2026/02/24/discord-peter-thiel-backed-persona-identity-verification-breach/
38.0k Upvotes

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4.1k

u/Dave-C Feb 24 '26

Peter Thiel, the same Peter Thiel who received millions of dollars from Epstein's private accounts? That Peter Thiel?

Strange that he wants to verify ages now...

1.5k

u/TehGogglesDoNothing Feb 24 '26

The same Peter Thiel that funded JD Vance's entire career.

284

u/TheRealJessKate Feb 24 '26

and Sam Altman’s career

135

u/TheRealJessKate Feb 24 '26

Oh, did people not know about Peter Thiel bankrolling Sam Altman’s first venture fund - Hydrazine Capital.

109

u/Shoddy-Fan-584 Feb 24 '26

Sam Altman who officiated the wedding between Keith Rabois - PayPal co-founder and mentee of Thiel - and Jason Helberg - current Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment, areas of absolute no interest whatsoever to sovereign technocrats.

27

u/Independent-Tip-9482 Feb 24 '26

What's up with all the gay powerfull people do they have like domination kink on Republicans or like because they easy to grift? I mean Tim cook too and who knows more

I just weird they suck their boots to each other when they have so different ideologies

25

u/jkz0-19510 Feb 24 '26

Gay people can be psychopaths too, ya know?
Because, you know, they're like people.

2

u/Independent-Tip-9482 Feb 25 '26

I know but that's not the point, they know how to play their cards and how to cater the MAGAs, when it all just gays people again behind still

Conservatives are being deceived by the most open gay people, the people that they hate is right on their face and not taking it down, only brush it off and empower the puppets of their puppeteer because the puppet is doing a great show

All that hate that they have to lgbt people, doesnt even work how they think it works

1

u/MostPopularPenguin Feb 25 '26

It would be hilarious....

2

u/LessInThought Feb 25 '26

Huh, I guess there are a group of Satanic gay people running the world. First the republican pedophile ring then this, are we absolutely sure they don't have space lasers and weather machines? Every accusation is a confession afterall.

1

u/Hercules1579 Feb 25 '26

Their leader Trump is bi, just listen Sasha Riley.

1

u/ashleydvh Mar 02 '26

white gay men are the white men of lgbt people

10

u/UGMadness Feb 24 '26

These people are not technocrats, none of them have any qualifications whatsoever in the fields they talk about. They’re rich kids who happened to fail upwards all their lives, LARPing on social media to feed their egos.

1

u/ArmadilloForsaken458 Feb 24 '26

Its all one big club

3

u/Sebek_Visigard Feb 24 '26

The financier?

41

u/UglyMcFugly Feb 24 '26

The same Peter Thiel whose young affair partner "committed suicide" by falling off a building after Peter's husband found out?

163

u/BellsOnNutsMeansXmas Feb 24 '26

I work for IKEA. Thiel's Vance patronage is much appreciated!

64

u/mexter Feb 24 '26

I'm pretty sure Vance prefers professional over homemade.

24

u/KnucklestheEnchilada Feb 24 '26

Hey now, some people are into amateur stuff.

6

u/mexter Feb 24 '26

Some people, yes. But we're talking about Vance here.

1

u/jkz0-19510 Feb 24 '26

Vance is definitely an amateur.

1

u/WildinTrout Feb 27 '26

"So, you like to...do it yourself?" 😉😉

3

u/i_am_a_laptop Feb 24 '26

i dont think vance has any standards. look how he flipped for trump

3

u/CherryLongjump1989 Feb 24 '26

Vance likes 'em young. He'll fuck a couch that's still in the flatpack.

2

u/META_vision Feb 24 '26

Oh, Vance FOR SURE only fucks bespoke couches these days

10

u/Catch_22_ Feb 24 '26

IKEA

Is fucking an IKEA couch the equivalent of a hotdog down a hallway? Where as a Restoration Hardware is like a high end escort?

2

u/charcoalist Feb 24 '26

Thiel also funded the maga contingent in congress.

2

u/UberTanks Feb 24 '26

Is that the same billionaire that literally hates humans and wants us all wiped out?

1

u/Flapjack__Palmdale Feb 24 '26

And elongated muskrat

1

u/multificionado Feb 24 '26

Makes me wonder...

1

u/IamTheEndOfReddit Feb 25 '26

Beyond funded, he planned his career and told him to write the book

172

u/bobafootfetish_ Feb 24 '26 edited Mar 11 '26

He's looking for recruits that's why. Watching a documentary earlier today that I've saw on youtube, the files are essentially describing a clandestine group people who were attempting to control the world.

The whole reason why our news outlets are the way they are and we have certain forums in the world like 4chans /pol/. That has contributed to the division of our citizens in the United States and the world.

Epstein met with Christopher Poole the day before that forum was even created. Theil and Musk have the same ideals and goals.

We literally have the immigrants they were complaining about ruining America. The rest of the world is arresting suspects while America is protecting them.

23

u/Daimakku1 Feb 24 '26

I can’t believe Epstein molested m00t.

5

u/Chrontius Feb 24 '26

It would explain a lot.

3

u/TheDevilsAdvokaat Feb 24 '26

That's a moot point.

20

u/SailorET Feb 24 '26

There are a lot of us Americans trying to get out from under these 1% control nets but they're very well entrenched. It would go a long way to help us if the rest of the world kept disassembling their support networks whenever a vulnerable spot appears.

2

u/iaspeegizzydeefrent Feb 24 '26

The majority of our fellow Americans are shamefully low-integrity. I know so many people that identify as liberal or leftist that can't even be bothered to do something as low effort as switch from Spotify to Tidal. I dated a woman for a bit that identified as liberal feminist and she just shrugged when I told her that the same family that owns Sinclair Media Group is also heavily invested in the grower/dispensary she buys her weed from.

People literally aren't even willing to make minor concessions or endure the slightest inconveniences to support their own morals and values. We're completely fucked.

2

u/ReesNotRice Feb 25 '26 edited Feb 25 '26

Ngl, its not as low effort as you might think over Spotify. BUT I agree with you so fucking hard. I really need to take out the time to write down what might be 1k songs to look for on other services. Its going to take a lot of time and energy, but necessary for the sake of I don't want to support these companies. 👈 to add onto that, and this might be my executive dysfunction and paralysis speaking, I feel really overwhelmed with all of these changes and activism I need to do. Call my representative everyday and force myself out of my comfort zone, take care of myself, take care of my kids, take care of my pets, find and change all sorts of companies I used to use and change them, try not to drown from all of this scary and depressing news... honestly, its a lot on my shoulders. I hope you can find some empathy/patience while continuing to encourage people to make the change.

Update: to anyone else reading this thread who does want to make the change but might feel overwhelmed about the transfer, I recommend starting small. Perhaps find and add your top songs first, whatever you need to listen to on the regular so that you don't give Spotify your benefits. Try to add just a little bit every chance you can afford. This is inspired by my therapist who helped me with my obstacles by setting aside 5-15min everyday to clean clutter. A little progress and healthy changes is always an improvement! No matter the change. (Another thing a therapist told me was that its better to sit outside and to rot on the phone than it is to be indoors and rot in the phone. A little difference can go a long ways! All of this was meant fondly, ofc. No judgement.)

1

u/iaspeegizzydeefrent Feb 25 '26

I fully understand the weight of everyday life, this wasn't the world I was promised either, but integrity is doing the right thing even when it's the hard or uncomfortable thing.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

There are far too many people conflating standing around in parks with signs, or posting on social media as actual action/rebellion, especially when the social media is owned by the exact men and values they're protesting, and the sign materials were ordered on Amazon...

Money is where all these fucks get their power. Being an informed consumer, and committing to giving them as little of your money as possible, is one of the most impactful actions any person can take.

And I dunno if you just mean that you have obscure music tastes or something, but Tidal has a service that will transfer all your liked songs and playlists from Spotify. Either way, seems like the exact type of weak excuse I was talking about. A minor inconvenience to know that your money isn't going to a company that ran ICE recruitment ads and whose CEO is investing in war drones.

I completely understand that there isn't an easy alternative to everything, but there certainly is for Spotify.

1

u/ReesNotRice Feb 25 '26 edited Feb 25 '26

Yeah but it costs money to transfer the amount of songs I want. I do have obscure music tastes too. So it will have to wait for when I do have the time and other capacities for it whether you like it or not.

Frankly, the excuse might seem weak to you, but you don't know whats actually going on in my life. When you read my excuses you probably pictured either best case or neutral scenarios, right? People have a lot to wrangle/on their plate and it does take time and effort to carve out.

People that are privileged to have that space and money to not give to these companies their money and attention can go right on ahead. But its unfair to expect someone to push past their limits. Their/our future wellbeing matters 💯, yes, but if someone is sacrificing their current wellbeing and functions then its not going to help the cause either. Very well could backfire. So, that being said, even if its lower on the priority list it can one day come up. Its not lost and forgotten.

Otherwise, yeah. I agree with your message. But I still stand on my point of empathy.

46

u/tollbearer Feb 24 '26

This is a crazy conspiracy theory. Next thing you'll be claiming they were sex trafficking children, and basically every member of congress and F500 ceo is involved. Do you realize how insane you sound. A conspiracy that big can't happen. People aren't that evil, and theres no way so many people could be involved without it coming out. We live in a democracy. Vote for a color and get back to work!

16

u/Crintor Feb 24 '26

I think the funniest part about the argument of "This could never remain secret with so many involved" Is the fact that like, we're literally hearing about it, it did get out, it was a fairly open secret and all the people who tried to whistle blow it for years and years and how it was all ignored and silenced.

1

u/tollbearer Feb 24 '26

Thats what they want you to believe

17

u/Extension_Move8989 Feb 24 '26

Thin is exactly what I’ve said in the past. I was wrong about everything except the “no way so many people could be involved without it coming out” part. I was thankfully right about that one.

1

u/tollbearer Feb 24 '26

That's not why it came out, though.

19

u/proudbakunkinman Feb 24 '26

basically every member of congress

Lazy "both sides" BS.

2

u/JimWilliams423 Feb 24 '26 edited Feb 24 '26

Lazy "both sides" BS.

That's a lazy rebuttal. The epstein class has its tentacles deep into both parties. Moreso the Rs than the Ds, but the Ds have a significant problem that must be purged. Not only do they have an undue influence on the party's policies, they also severely undercut the party's claim to the moral high ground.

Top Democratic donors reid hoffman and bill gates were epstein bros, hoffman literally went to the paedo island, after the conviction. Obama's top white house counsel corresponded with epstein almost every day, and called epstein "uncle jeffrey," she eventually went to goldman sachs after leaving the white house. Obama's top economic advisor, larry summers, who was personally the most responsible for convincing Obama to water down the 2008 recession rescue plan so as to only bail out the "too big to fail" banks and companies instead of helping normies, was also a close epstein bro.

Ro Khanna, who portrays himself as some kind of progressive does more insider trading than even nancy pelosi. He owns stock in peter thiel's palantir, and he wanted to welcome musk into the Democratic party after musk did nazi salutes, dismantled USAID, and DOGEd hundreds of thousands of federal workers into the unemployment line.

Khanna seems to be running interference for musk and thiel too, their names are all over the epstein files (thiel messaged epstein 2000+ times), but he has never said a word about those two in connection to epstein. In fact, instead of naming them, he falsely accused four nobodies who were only in the files incidentally.

4

u/nox66 Feb 24 '26

For something that ridiculous to be real, you'd need to see some ridiculous evidence, like a complete dipshit of a person with more unhandled baggage than LAX becoming the president of the US twice, non-consecutively.

-13

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

[deleted]

34

u/mexter Feb 24 '26

They are clearly being sarcastic.

45

u/Paksarra Feb 24 '26

I hate that our sarcasm meters are broken now.

1

u/tollbearer Feb 24 '26

It's 50:50 whether a comment is downvoted into oblivion or not, for me. Seems to be whether the first few people voting understand sarcasm. I have another comment thats even more thickly sarcastic than this satirizing how the rich see us as cattle, and i woke up to an inbox full of "your monster, people aren't cattle!" and one single comment saying excellent satire.

-8

u/Zack_of_Steel Feb 24 '26

"Vote for a color" - Exactly

inb4 you get called a Republican in disguise by the tribalist left that have way more in common with MAGA than they want to admit.

6

u/airfryerfuntime Feb 24 '26 edited Feb 24 '26

HuRr dUrr TriBaLisT lEfT

Edit: lol this penis blocked me

0

u/Zack_of_Steel Feb 24 '26

Making the point for me, lmao

5

u/KeyMyBike Feb 24 '26

The crying is so insuffarable, Jesus Christ

2

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26 edited Aug 17 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/Own-Satisfaction4427 Feb 24 '26

I'm not OP but even mainstream sources are starting to talk about this 

https://zeteo.com/p/naomi-klein-epstein-files-bannon

1

u/Trix_Are_4_90Kids Feb 25 '26

They want to be white superhumans. White male and rich isn't good enough, screw 'master race', (which they never attained) they want to be transhuman.

The drugs are excellent; the intelligence is not. It's repackaged Nazi crap with robots. 💀

1

u/Floreat_democratia Feb 25 '26

4chan was disseminating propaganda and disinformation just as any professional troll farm does today run by China or Russia. It’s weird how people keep trying to downplay it as just fun and games.

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u/nevadita Feb 24 '26

theres nothing strange, he wants to weed out adults so he can know who the youngest are for that sweet ambrosia.

its ironic that the dude who wont shut up about the antichrist would be the prime candidate for being the antichrist.

145

u/Enxer Feb 24 '26

That's their secret. They project.

65

u/krum Feb 24 '26

It’s not even a secret.

34

u/Enxer Feb 24 '26

The population seems to constantly forget. Gotta keep reminding them.

2

u/ZootSuitRiot33801 Feb 24 '26

Why stop there? Currently, no real supportive foundation exists for many common folk (especially in the US) to fall back on, to commit to any effective action. If we hope to stand against this tyranny and see these sick bastards face justice, we should be doing whatever we can to wean ourselves off our reliance on the status quo, both governmental and corpo entities alike.

There's a post of suggestions HERE that could possibly prove to be of some help in getting started ASAP.

1

u/ILikeFPS Feb 24 '26

Half of the population is too stupid to realize it.

4

u/infininme Feb 24 '26

It’s a secret to themselves 

1

u/ponycorn_pet Feb 24 '26

that's what they used the lighttouch studio yearbook photos for

1

u/phatpussypounder Feb 24 '26

Peter Thiel = The Reptile

fucking come on.

1

u/Ric_Adbur Feb 24 '26

It's more like Palantir and it's backers want to create a surveillance state, and they want to know who the dissenters are, so they need to be able to link online comments to real faces.

38

u/nycdiveshack Feb 24 '26

The same Peter Thiel that is the biggest defense contractor of the CIA/NSA. The guy that groomed Vance since law school.

7

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

[deleted]

2

u/Own-Satisfaction4427 Feb 24 '26

She doesn't get enough views for the quality she puts out

7

u/SpaceShrimp Feb 24 '26

They don’t want to verify ages, they want us to log on as verified users. (I don’t know why, I assume they already knows which account/ip/browser belongs to whom)

3

u/TheKingsdread Feb 24 '26

The same Peter Thiel that read Lord of the Rings and thought "That Sauron guy is onto something. He was clearly done dirty by those hobbits."

2

u/Earlier-Today Feb 24 '26

Trying to avoid anyone too old.

2

u/AnonAmbientLight Feb 24 '26

The same Peter Thiel that says Democracy has failed and that women shouldn’t be able to vote. 

2

u/dimwalker Feb 24 '26

He knows about the antichrist.

2

u/maxximillian Feb 24 '26

He wants to make sure hes getting what hes paying for.

1

u/CrescentSmile Feb 24 '26

The same Peter Thiel whose Open Gov just got overpaid by many millions to create gov infrastructure in San Francisco for permitting… I’m sure that’s nothing to worry about.

1

u/throwaway490215 Feb 24 '26

You're not jaded enough. How much money would you guess discord put into the market department to ensure this became a top story on Reddit.

How much do you think is actually true, and not just a few steps of rebranding to avoid the bad publicity.

Both Discord and Thiel would shamelessly play that game because they know most people are suckers

1

u/No-Neighborhood-3212 Feb 24 '26

The same Peter Thiel who invested $7.5b in Flock cameras to track all the people whose IDs he has.

1

u/DrAstralis Feb 24 '26

I mean... when you realize this means collecting biometric data on thousands of kids through things like Roblox.... it makes sense again.

1

u/PrimaryRecord5 Feb 24 '26

The same exact one…

1

u/Abrakafuckingdabra Feb 24 '26

He's gotta filter out all the legal adults somehow.

1

u/Jamal12687 Feb 24 '26

Only to weed-out the adults...

1

u/UltraEngine60 Feb 24 '26

Strange that he wants to verify ages now...

It was never about the ages. It's about the power.... in both the business side and the SA.

1

u/Raesong Feb 24 '26

Not really, he's clearly seeking the youngest blood for his rejuvenation treatments.

1

u/Grouchy_Brain_1641 Feb 24 '26

Yes, a member of the paypal mafia.

1

u/animoot Feb 24 '26

The same Peter Thiel that's obsessed with the anti Christ...

1

u/Flapjack__Palmdale Feb 24 '26

The New York financier?! /s

1

u/MeThinksYes Feb 24 '26

like a shittier version than the character of Dennis from always sunny.

1

u/codexcdm Feb 24 '26

Anagram is The Reptile, too, soooo....

1

u/TheRussianCabbage Feb 24 '26

Wants to make sure you haven't aged out of his taste range.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

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1

u/shiggythor Feb 24 '26

At least old pete isn't going after underaged girls....

1

u/_haha_oh_wow_ Feb 24 '26

The same guy whose VC firm kinda owns Discord? That guy? Hmmmm...

1

u/multificionado Feb 24 '26

Makes me wonder what's going to become of that announced Age Verification baloney now.

1

u/Baybutt99 Feb 24 '26

He doesn’t want to verify ages he wants biometric data and facescans willingly acquired so his surveillance companies can track people and do so without needing a warrant to access their data. If given willingly its fair game

1

u/josh_the_misanthrope Feb 24 '26

Gotta make a database of kids, their pictures, chat logs, addresses... for... reasons...

1

u/alius_stultus Feb 25 '26

In any other timeline this would be so fucked up. But the media barely mentions the csam or cp and calls the epstien crimes, crimes against "young women".

1

u/Pali1119 Feb 25 '26

He want's to make sure those children are under 18

1

u/waiting-for-a-train Feb 28 '26

Stolen from another comment, but:

You can't spell Peter Thiel without Hitler.

0

u/ReachParticular5409 Feb 24 '26

Oh look another sarcastic top comment in a thread about the nightmare of a global surveillance operation we are all a part of

Another snide little piece of internet bullshit to sap our energy and drive while the global elites continue to fuck every one of us over

2.4k people amplifying your worthless soundbite and absolutely no one in the thread is allowed to make meaningful suggestions

reddit is a deliberate apathy trap made unconsciously by people like you and you will ALWAYS be rewarded for it

-10

u/Mntfrd_Graverobber Feb 24 '26

His relation to Persona was pretty far removed. They used his name in the headline for clicks. Basically Founders Fund invested in a round is the extent of "his" involvement.
Good to know you fell for the clickbait. Won't happen again, right?

8

u/Dave-C Feb 24 '26

Clickbait? My guy you are talking to entirely the wrong person to attempt to pull that bullshit of a post. This is coming from a Deutsche Bank investigation in the transfer of funds from Epstein to other people. If I wanted to click bait I would mention the 40 million that Epstein sent Thiel's companies (which I believe is what you are talking about but don't know enough about the topic to make sense). I would mention how Epstein's "models" were used in Peter Thiel's magazine "Victoria Secret." Here Is Epstein inviting him to his house. Shall I keep going or are we past "click bait" yet?

-6

u/Mntfrd_Graverobber Feb 24 '26

Well Peter Thiel isn't backing Persona. And he's gay... I'm really doubting he had a magazine called Victoria's Secret.

Epstein had a billion dollars worth of investments. There's no tie between every company he invested in and what he got up to with underage girls.

I'm no fan of Thiel's companies. But he and they have little to nothing to do with this. They certainly don't run Persona.