Meta is expanding its use of facial recognition in Europe, the UK and South Korea to crack down on accounts that impersonate public figures. The new facial recognition-powered safety features are now live on Facebook in the regions and will expand to Instagram in the coming months.
The technology was initially put to use last year starting in the US, helping to identify ads that fraudulently use a celebrity’s likeness as well as to help people regain access to hacked accounts. Public figures opt in to this program in Europe, which is also being rolled out in South Korea alongside the new protections against impersonation. This new use case is aimed at scammers who pose as public figures to trick unsuspecting users into sending money or other scams of that nature.
“We’ll now use facial recognition technology to compare the profile picture on the suspicious account to the real public figure’s Facebook and Instagram profile pictures. If there’s a match, we will remove the impostor account,” said a Meta spokesperson.
In addition to the US rollout, the company’s facial recognition technology has been used to aid account recovery in the UK, EU and South Korea since March. This came three years after Facebook decided to shut down its facial recognition system on Facebook, due in large part to public backlash against the technology.
The social media giant touts the benefits of these tools, reporting that in the first half of 2025, user reports of “celebrity bait” ads dropped by 22 percent globally. Facial recognition remains a controversial technology, with differing public opinion on its use in law enforcement and the workplace.
