[troad]

It’s effectively mandatory. If you register an account without it, you will be banned within fifteen minutes, even if you do absolutely nothing, for “suspicious activity”. The only recourse? Handing over your phone number. Apparently that absolves you of any “suspicious activity”.

Give it a go in an incognito tab now, you’ll see. It’s intentionally deceptive, and they’ve shown time and time again they can’t be trusted with the data.