Instagram introduces identity verification via video selfies
Instagram is asking some users to provide video selfies showing their face from multiple angles to confirm that they are real people. The news was posted on Twitter by social media consultant Matt Navarra.
Instagram is now using video selfies to confirm users' identities
- Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) November 15, 2021
Meta promises not to collect biometric data. pic.twitter.com/FNT2AdW8H2
The social network has long struggled with bots, which can leave spam messages, harass people or be used to artificially increase followers and subscribers. Instagram's official Twitter account has already come out with some clarification.
One of the ways we use video selfies is when we think an account could be a bot. For example, if the account likes lots of posts or follows a ton of accounts in a matter of seconds, video selfies help us determine if there's a real person behind the account or not.
- Instagram Comms (@InstagramComms) November 17, 2021
They imply that the social network is indeed trying to fight against spam bots this way and doesn't plan to use user video selfies to build a face recognition database. According to the assurances of Instagram representatives, the collected video-selfies are destroyed one month after they are uploaded to the server.
Let's pretend that we willingly believe these claims and wait for the next news about this most interesting experience.
Source: @MattNavarra, @InstagramComms
Illustration: Brett Jordan
