Hackers found that some of Persona's frontend code was seemingly tied to US government surveillance efforts, including an apparent OpenAI-powered watchlist database. This led to speculation that Persona could be tied to immigration enforcement (ICE) and government intelligence agencies, though Persona has denied those claims and clarified that Peter Thiel is only an investor and not involved with After significant criticism, Discord cut ties with one of its 'age assurance' partners. Discord confirmed in a statement to Ars Technica that it wouldn't be working with Persona any longer and that its temporary run within the UK using Persona as an age assurance vendor lasted less than a month. While the specific concerns regarding Persona will be eliminated by this move, the "teen-by-default" policy and push for intrusive age verification remains. At the same time, these age verification techniques are becoming more common across the web, as politicians push for a less-anonymous, age-gated Internet.