Meta is trialling a facial recognition system to monitor Facebook and Instagram for celebrity endorsement scams, which will initially focus on 50,000

Meta is testing facial recognition to combat 'relentless' celebrity endorsement scams

submited by

Style Pass

2024-10-22 15:00:05

Meta is trialling a facial recognition system to monitor Facebook and Instagram for celebrity endorsement scams, which will initially focus on 50,000 celebrities worldwide.

The two announcements are part of the company's cautious return to the use of facial recognition, having backed away from the technology amid a series of costly lawsuits.

Meta is rolling out facial recognition on Facebook and Instagram to combat scammers who impersonate celebrities to promote products or investment schemes.

"Celebrity endorsement scams" cost Australians millions of dollars and feature well-known public figures including David Koch, Dick Smith, Mike Baird, Andrew Forrest, Sam Kerr and Dr Karl.

Meta has struggled to stop the spread of these scams on its platforms, despite deploying an automated monitoring system that uses machine learning to review millions of ads per day.

The automated system compares images of public figures in suspected scam ads against the individual's Facebook and Instagram profile pictures, Meta's director of global threat disruption David Agranovich said.