TNW 424: Face Scans on Discord? - Discord's New Age Verification Process Sparks Privacy Concerns
Tech News Weekly (Audio)
Leo Laporte
4.0 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 12 February 2026
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Amanda Silberling of TechCrunch joins Mikah Sargent this week on Tech News Weekly! A Stanford graduate built a matchmaking algorithm that's sweeping across the Stanford campus. Is social media "clinically addictive"? Discord announced an age-verification process that sparked privacy concerns among users. And the Virtual Boy is back?
- Amanda talks about an AI-powered dating app that was developed by a Stanford graduate and how dating for young adults is becoming more driven by tech.
- Mikah talks about the social media addiction trial and comments made by Instagram's CEO, Adam Mosseri.
- Emma Roth of The Verge joins the show to talk about Discord's age verification mandate that has sparked huge user privacy concerns, especially following a data breach the company suffered last year.
- And Scott Stein of CNET stops by to share his thoughts and time with Nintendo's revival of Virtual Boy as a replica accessory for the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2.
Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Amanda Silberling
Guests: Emma Roth and Scott Stein
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Coming up on Tech News Weekly, Amanda Silverling is here. |
| 0:02.5 | We kick off the show by talking about, yes, a Stanford student who's trying to optimize matching between partners. |
| 0:10.0 | Then I talk about how Instagram is currently defend, well, meta really is defending itself in court by way of Instagram's Mosseri. |
| 0:20.0 | Afterwards, we have an interview with Emma Roth, who joins the show to tell us about what |
| 0:24.3 | the current state is with Discord and Age Verification and Scott Stein of Sina at Stop |
| 0:28.8 | by to tell us about his experience with the virtual boy and a talking flower. |
| 0:34.1 | All of that coming up on Tech News Weekly. |
| 0:38.6 | Podcasts you love. |
| 0:40.5 | From people you trust. |
| 0:43.0 | This is Twitter. |
| 0:46.6 | This is Tech News Weekly, episode 424, with Amanda Silverling and me, Micah Sargent, recorded Thursday, February 12, 26. |
| 0:56.7 | Face scans on Discord? |
| 0:59.6 | Hello and welcome to Tech News Weekly, the show where every week we talk to and about the people making and breaking that tech news. |
| 1:06.2 | I am your host, Micah Sargent, And today on this, the second Thursday of February, |
| 1:14.6 | 2026, if you can believe it, we are joined by the wonderful Amanda Silberling. |
| 1:20.1 | Welcome back to the show, Amanda. |
| 1:21.6 | Hello, happy middle of February, everyone's favorite month. |
| 1:25.6 | A normal month. It's a normal sort of month's favorite month. A normal month. |
| 1:28.3 | It's a normal sort of month that does month things. |
| 1:32.3 | Yeah. So speaking of a normal sort of thing that does things, yeah, great segue. |
| 1:39.3 | Tech, am I right? |
| 1:41.3 | Tech, how do you do it? What do you do? This is, of course, the part of the show where we share our stories of the week. |
... |
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