Instagram is asking some users to provide a video selfie showing multiple angles of their face to verify that they’re a real person, according to screenshots posted to Twitter by social media consultant Matt Navarra. The social network has long struggled with bot accounts, which can leave spam messages, harass people, or be used to artificially inflate like or follower counts. A followup tweet from Meta-owned Instagram says it’s asking suspicious accounts to verify they’re human, not bots.
According to XDA Developers, the company started testing the feature last year but ran into technical issues. Multiple users have recently reported being asked to take a video selfie to verify their existing accounts.
Another writer on Twitter, Bettina Makalintal, posted a screenshot of the help screen for the step where you actually take the video selfie — it reiterates that it’s looking at “all angles of your face” to prove that you’re a real person and shows that the verification screen is showing up for multiple people.
Instagram is now using video selfies to confirm users identity
Meta promises not to collect biometric data. pic.twitter.com/FNT2AdW8H2
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) November 15, 2021
Meta’s promise to not store or post the data may not reassure some users who are already distrustful of Meta / Facebook. People may remember the time when a bug let attackers access Instagram users’ supposedly private birthday info (which you’ll soon be required to provide to use the app) with just a DM. Of course, Instagram hadn’t promised to delete that birthday info like it says it’ll do with the video selfie, but it’d be hard to blame people (especially minors or those who want to stay anonymous) for feeling uncomfortable with providing that data.
Source: Verge
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