Meta Revives Controversial Facial Recognition Program In Effort To Combat Celebrity Scam Ads

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is ramping up efforts to curb celebrity endorsement scams by using a controversial facial recognition system it shut down years ago.

The program is aimed at stopping the fraudulent use of famous figures in ads and comes as scammers increasingly rely on deepfake technology to deceive the public.

The use of facial recognition follows complaints from high-profile individuals like Elon Musk whose identity has been repeatedly misused in online scams.

The so-called "celeb-bait" scams typically bait people into engaging with ads that lead to scam websites, where they are asked to share personal information or send money, Meta said.

Meta says the A.I. will compare ad images with the profile pictures of celebrities on Facebook and Instagram. If a match is confirmed, the ad will be automatically removed.

"Early testing with a small group of celebrities and public figures shows promising results in increasing the speed and efficacy with which we can detect and enforce against this type of scam," Meta says.

Deepfake technology, which uses artificial intelligence to create realistic fake videos or images, has made it easier for scammers to impersonate celebrities. This has led to increasingly believable scams that target unsuspecting users.

In addition to fighting scams, Meta is also testing the use of facial recognition technology to help users who have been locked out of their accounts.

Currently, users must submit identification documents to regain access to Facebook or Instagram. With the new system, users could instead submit video selfies, which would be compared to their profile pictures to confirm their identity.

Meta had a "face recognition" system in the past.

Meta disabled its facial recognition system in 2021, deleting the face scan data of one billion users, citing "growing societal concerns."

In August, the company was found liable of collecting biometric data without proper consent and ordered to pay the state of Texas $1.4 billion to settle the lawsuit.