Meta is extending its facial recognition tools to new markets, with Engadget reporting and the company confirming that the technology is now rolling out across the UK, EU, and South Korea. The systems are designed to detect and remove accounts impersonating public figures, while also giving users the option to submit video selfies to help regain access to hacked accounts. Meta says Instagram support will follow in the coming months.
According to Meta’s newsroom, the new checks have already led to a 22 percent decline in user reports of “celebrity-bait” scam ads during the first half of 2025, with nearly half a million public figures now covered by the protections. The expansion broadens a program that began with ad monitoring, extending it to account-level impersonation. Under the approach, when Meta’s systems suspect an account or ad is misusing a celebrity’s likeness, the image is compared with the public figure’s official profile photos; if a match is found and the content violates policy, it is blocked or removed.
For account recovery, users who have lost access can opt to provide a short video selfie, which is checked against photos from the compromised profile. Meta says this process is voluntary and that any biometric data generated for the comparison is deleted immediately after the check is completed.
The company’s move represents a return of face-matching technology in regions with strict privacy regulations, following its decision to shut down the broader Facebook facial recognition system in 2021. Since then, Meta has limited its use of the technology to safety-related cases, such as combating scam ads featuring public figures. Reuters has previously reported on the company’s cautious reintroduction of face recognition for this purpose. The latest changes expand the regional scope to include South Korea, where regulators have approved use of the technology for curbing impersonation, and add the new account recovery option.
For users, the protections remain narrow in focus: they target impersonation of public figures and offer an additional—but optional—method for securing hacked accounts. Instagram integration is expected soon, and Meta indicates that rollouts will continue in cooperation with local privacy requirements in each region.
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
