What you should know about Meta’s facial recognition plans

FAcebook parent company Meta Platforms Inc. will begin using facial recognition technology to crack down on scams that use images of celebrities to look more legitimate. This strategy is called “celebrity bait ads.”

Scammers use images of famous people to trick users into clicking on ads that take them to shady websites aimed at stealing their personal information or asking for money. Meta will use facial recognition technology to weed out these ads by comparing the images in the post with images from a celebrity’s Facebook or Instagram account.

“If we confirm a match and determine that the ad is a scam, we block it,” Meta wrote in a blog post. Meta did not disclose how common this type of fraud occurs on its services.

With nearly 3.3 billion daily active users across its apps, Meta relies on artificial intelligence to enforce many of its content rules and policies. This helped Meta better manage the flood of daily reports of spam and other rule-breaking content. It has also caused problems in the past when legitimate accounts were unintentionally suspended or suspended due to automated errors.

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Meta says it will also begin using facial recognition technology to better help users who are locked out of their accounts. A new test will allow some users to submit a video selfie if they’ve been banned from their accounts. Meta then compares the video with the photos on the account to see if there is a match.

Meta has asked previously banned users to provide other forms of identity verification, such as an ID card or official certificate, but says the video selfie option would only take a minute to complete. Meta will “immediately delete all facial data generated following this comparison, regardless of whether there is a match or not,” the company wrote in a blog.

The social networking giant has a complicated history with facial recognition technology. Previously, the company used facial recognition to identify users in uploaded photos to encourage people to tag their friends and strengthen connections. Meta was later sued by several US states for profiting from this technology without users’ consent, and in 2024 Meta was ordered to pay $1.4 billion to the state of Texas as part of the lawsuit. A few years earlier, the company had agreed to pay $650 million in a separate lawsuit in Illinois.

According to Monika Bickert, vice president of content policy at Meta, the company will not be conducting this video selfie test in Illinois or Texas.