Controversial facial recognition is making a comeback on social media platforms owned by Meta. Facebook’s owner claims this time, the technology will help in spotting and censoring clickbait.
Facial recognition tech is making a comeback on Meta-owned platforms
Meta has reportedly announced it is bringing back facial recognition technology. The social media giant had attempted to embed the tech into Facebook and other platforms about three years ago. However, it had to shut down the software owing to rising concerns of privacy, and regulator pushback.
This time, facial recognition software is making a comeback to combat “celeb bait” scams. Meta has announced it would start testing the use of facial recognition technology.
The trial run for the tech will reportedly involve around 50,000 public figures. Meta assured it will start notifying the individuals and they can opt out of the program.
The facial recognition tech will compare these celebrities’ profile pictures with images used in suspected scam advertisements. If the tech finds a possible match, and the ad appears to be indeed a fraud, Meta will block the content.
The company recently announced another round of layoffs. Hence, it is quite likely Meta will use its AI to detect questionable content.
Will general users benefit from the tech Meta is reintroducing?
Attempting to explain why facial recognition tech is coming back, Monika Bickert, Meta’s VP of content policy stated, “This initiative aims to protect high-profile individuals whose images have been frequently exploited for scam ads. The idea here is: to roll out as much protection as we can for them. They can opt out of it if they want to, but we want to be able to make this protection available to them and easy for them.”
Additionally, the technology could help users whose accounts have been hijacked. Meta claimed regular users could upload a video selfie to reclaim their account if it was hijacked by scammers.
