A new tool is under development and testing from Meta and it promises that it can provide users with the capabilities to spot online celebrity deepfake scams and other deceptive campaigns of a similar degree. The main focus of Meta with this latest tool is to provide users with online safety and help them with this massive problem that is already circulating on the internet.
There is also another purpose for Meta's facial recognition tool as it can also potentially help users in their account recovery for those who have suffered from it being locked after suspicious access.
Meta Brings New Facial Recognition Tool to Spot Celebrity Deepfakes
Meta is now reviving its facial recognition technology as it announced a new tool that will be available for users in the future, with the feature currently under testing by the company to bring enhanced security for all. One of the main stressed points by Meta on its latest tool is its ability to "protect" people from the 'celeb-bait' ads which are growing notoriously all over social media.
The company said that it is now working on this tool to detect 'celeb-bait' scams which are using a prominent figure's likeness as a way to get people to fall for their tactics, and avoid significant harm.
According to Meta, they will use the legitimate photos of celebrities from their Facebook or Instagram profiles and cross-match them to the alleged scam, and upon confirmation that it is a fake, it will automatically block the post or ad.
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Account Recovery for Facebook, Instagram Also a Feature
However, Meta takes it a step further by claiming that this facial recognition tool will soon double as a way to verify a person's identity when their accounts on Facebook, Instagram, or other Meta platforms have been locked out. Through this, users will get a chance to recover their said accounts and prevent hackers from getting access, as facial recognition will provide additional security.
This move picks up from its 2021 shutdown of the previous face recognition technology which already has over 1 billion records of user's faces.
Is Facial Recognition the Answer to Digital Security?
Facial recognition technology has been made widely available to the public at different entry points, and its popularity began when high-end smartphones offered the technology to unlock devices instead of fingerprints or codes. Apple's Face ID and Samsung's Face Recognition were among the first to introduce this feature with their devices, and it was later followed by other manufacturers and is now available among mid-tier devices.
However, it has also seen the short end of the stick as facial recognition technology was also seen as a privacy nightmare, particularly for Clearview AI's technology which faced massive scrutiny. There has been a fine line between facial recognition and profiling in the technology industry which has seen opposing opinions behind the development which is still one of the reasons why it has not yet been widely adopted.
That being said, facial recognition has made a comeback in modern times as the rise of generative AI has been putting technology in an untrustworthy position where bad actors can use it to impersonate people to an extent. Meta's new tool promises that it will help users spot deepfakes and the so-called 'celeb bait' phenomenon that is taking over social media with a wave of misinformation, as well as help in account recovery.
