Meta is bringing back its facial recognition tech on Facebook and Instagram
It wants to use it as an anti-scam measure to protect its users from deceptive practices.
As social media adoption boom, there has been a corresponding surge in scammers exploiting the fame of celebrities and public figures to mislead users on social media with fake ads, a tactic known as “celeb-bait.”
Most of the scams use well-known faces to trick people into clicking on fraudulent ads, which leads to scam websites asking for personal information or even payments.
To tackle this growing issue, Meta is bringing back its facial recognition technology – which it initially shut down in 2021 to its social media platforms: Facebook and Instagram. It wants to use it as an anti-scam measure to protect its users from these deceptive practices.
The new facial recognition tool will compare the faces in suspected scam ads to the profile pictures of celebrities and public figures on its platforms. If the system detects a match and confirms that the ad is a scam, it will block the ad before it can deceive users.
Monika Bickert, Meta’s VP of content policy, explained that this technology offers a faster and more accurate way to catch scam ads than manual reviews. Since many legitimate companies also use celebrity endorsements, it is challenging for current systems to distinguish between genuine and fake ads. The introduction of facial recognition aims to address this issue.
The rollout of this tool is already underway, starting with a small group of public figures. In the coming weeks, Meta plans to expand the feature to include more celebrities and public figures, who will be automatically enrolled but will have the option to opt-out of the protection if they wish.
But Meta’s use of facial recognition isn’t limited to scam detection. The company is also testing the technology for a more efficient account recovery process, a long-standing challenge for users who have been locked out of their accounts.
The new “video selfie” feature allows users to upload a short clip of themselves, which Meta will then match to their profile photos to confirm their identity. This system is expected to offer a faster alternative to the current method, which requires users to submit government-issued IDs to regain account access.
However, Meta notes that the video selfie option won’t work for all accounts—business pages and accounts without a clear profile photo, for example, will still need to use the traditional account recovery methods.
Louis Eriakha
Despite the obvious benefits, the reintroduction of facial recognition technology raises questions, particularly regarding data privacy. Earlier this year, Meta paid $1.4 billion to Texas to settle a lawsuit accusing it of illegally collecting biometric data without consent. Separately, it also paid $650 million in 2020, to settle a biometric privacy class action. Similarly, TikTok faced a $92 million lawsuit over the wrongful use of facial recognition technology.
However, Meta has assured users that the technology is only being used for scam prevention and account recovery and that any facial data generated will be immediately deleted after each use. The company stressed that it does not store or reuse facial data for any other purpose. The feature remains optional, and individuals can opt-out if they choose.
Yet as both features roll out globally, they won’t be available in the U.K. or European Union due to stricter privacy regulations requiring explicit consent for the use of biometric data like facial recognition.
Overall, by reintroducing facial recognition, Meta aims to strike a balance between user safety and convenience. As the system continues to be refined and expanded, Meta’s approach could set a new standard for how social media platforms protect their users from online fraud and security breaches.
