If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. British Twitch users are waking up to a new form of surveillance disguised as “safety.” The platform, owned by Amazon, has begun enforcing a requirement that forces viewers to undergo facial recognition scans before accessing mature-rated streams in the United Kingdom. The change, made to satisfy the UK’s controversial Online Safety Act, effectively links biometric identification to entertainment and sets a precedent that privacy advocates have long warned could normalize state-aligned digital tracking. The rollout marks the most invasive version of age verification yet seen on a major streaming service. Rather than asking for confirmation of birth date or a one-time ID check, Twitch now demands a live scan of each user’s face through an app-integrated tool. Without it, entire categories of content are blocked. Facial recognition triggers automatically at three moments: when someone creates a new account, when existing members log in after the update, and when users attempt to watch any stream labeled with restricted material. The flagged categories include depictions of sex, drugs, intoxication, gambling, smoking, and violence. Even though no one under 13 can legally create a Twitch account, the new rules extend surveillance to all ages, forcing adults to prove their identity for the sake of watching routine content. Emails sent to UK users describe this as a verification step for “content that may not be suitable for everyone.” It means millions of viewers must now surrender their biometric data simply to browse the same site they used freely a week ago. Many users see the policy as a test case for broader biometric policing of the web. The UK government insists the Online Safety Act is about protecting children, but the Act’s design makes no distinction between protecting minors and monitoring adults. It empowers platforms to collect personal identifiers at scale, pushing private companies into the role of digital gatekeepers. Such systems do not come without risk. Discord’s earlier attempt at facial verification ended in disaster when a breach exposed the identity documents of roughly 70,000 users, including passports and driver’s licenses. That failure revealed a basic truth: biometric databases are not secure simply because they are built for “safety.” Twitch has outsourced its own facial recognition process to a third-party provider, mirroring the same approach that failed elsewhere. Once the scans are uploaded, users have no real control over where their faces are stored, how long they are kept, or whether they could be repurposed in the future. The Online Safety Act is facing a growing backlash. A parliamentary petition calling for its repeal has now reached the debate stage. The law creates an infrastructure for censorship under the banner of child protection. Adding to the turmoil, the UK’s communications regulator, Ofcom, has floated new rules that would prohibit under-18 streamers from earning money on Twitch at all. The proposal would block income from donations, subscriptions, or any other form of monetization, while disabling commenting, gifting, and recording during streams that feature minors. But for thousands of young creators, the result would be economic exclusion. Many teenage streamers rely on their earnings to help their families or fund their education. Under these proposed guidelines, they would either have to abandon Twitch entirely or seek platforms outside the UK’s jurisdiction. Twitch has yet to confirm which games will trigger these new restrictions, leaving both streamers and viewers uncertain. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Twitch Imposes Face Scans for UK Users to Comply with Government’s Censorship Law appeared first on Reclaim The Net.