Facebook is reportedly testing a new tool to fight fake accounts.
The social network’s verification system requires users to record short video clips of their face, turning in different directions within a digital circle.
The sort-of selfie helps “confirm your identity and check that you’re a real person,” according to screenshots shared by researcher Jane Manchun Wong.
Facebook’s got 99 problems, and fake accounts are one: Despite removing more than 2 billion bogus profiles in the first half of this year, rumor has it the company’s imposter problem is much larger.
“If you were Facebook, how else would you make sure the user is real?” Wong, who has an impeccable track record for exposing unreleased Facebook features, tweeted on Tuesday.
“How else would you ensure integrity and prevent frauds which happens with e-commerce?” she continued. “What if FB just didn’t verify anyone’s identity and let fraud and misinformation campaigns happen? Would this be ideal?”
Facebook has a rocky history with facial recognition—a term Wong initially used to describe the firm’s internal experiment.
“The feature recognizes my face as a face,” she explained. “I’m not referring to the tech that associates a face with an identity.”
Facebook’s identity verification system explicitly states no one else will see the video selfie, which will be deleted 30 days after confirmation (via Jane Manchun Wong/Twitter)
Facebook reinforced that idea in a statement to Mashable, clarifying that “This test is one of the steps we use to determine that a real person is operating an account rather than a bot.”
“It does not use facial recognition,” the spokesperson said. “Instead, it detects motion and whether a face is in the video.”
According to the small print, no one else will see the verification video, which gets deleted 30 days after your identity is confirmed.
“If Facebook doesn’t store/remember the face 30 days after the identity verification, does that mean people can create new fake accounts and pass the video selfie test once a month?” Wong tweeted.
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