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A hot potato: Meta is bringing back one of Facebook's most controversial features: facial recognition technology. This time, however, it is being used in the fight against celebrity investment scams, a problem that is becoming increasing prolific on the platform.
One of the many methods used to trick people into engaging with ads that lead to scam websites is to feature public figures, such as celebrities or content creators. Meta calls this "celeb-bait," a practice that violates its policies.
"Of course, celebrities are featured in many legitimate ads. But because celeb-bait ads are often designed to look real, they're not always easy to detect," Meta wrote in a post.
To crack down on celeb-bait, Meta is enrolling about 50,000 public figures in a trial that will use facial recognition tech to compare faces in an ad to the public figure's Facebook and Instagram profile pictures. If the system confirms a match and Meta determines the ad is a scam, the social network will block it.
"This process is done in real time and is faster and much more accurate than manual human reviews, so it allows us to apply our enforcement policies more quickly and to protect people on our apps from scams and celebrities," said David Agranovich, director of global threat disruption at Meta.
The use of facial recognition tech is always going to bring controversy over the privacy implications. Meta said all celebrities with Facebook or Instagram profiles will be notified of their enrolment and they can opt out if they do not wish to participate.
Meta added that it will delete any facial data generated from ads for the one-time comparison, regardless of whether its system finds a match, and it deos not use the data for any other purpose.
Early tests have shown promising results in the speed and efficiency in detecting scam celeb-bait ads, said Meta. The trial will be rolled out globally from December, though there are some large regions where it does not have the regulatory approval to use facial recognition tech, including Britain, the European Union, South Korea, and the states of Texas and Illinois.
Facebook previously used facial recognition to scan content uploaded by users so they could offer them extra features, the most famous being when they appeared in other users' photos or videos but hadn't been tagged.
In 2021, amid increasing scrutiny from governments and privacy advocates, Facebook said it was disabling its facial recognition features and deleting face data for over 1 billion users. The company had been hit with class-action lawsuits over alleged abuse of the technology in Texas and Illinois in the US.
In June, Australian billionaire mining magnate Andrew Forrest won the right to sue Meta over scam crypto and investment advertisements that appeared on Facebook featuring his likeness. The company is also is also facing a lawsuit from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
Meta added that it is testing the use of facial recognition tech to allow all Facebook and Instagram users to regain access to their accounts after they have been taken over by a hacker or locked due to them forgetting a password.