Meta Launches Free Facebook Verified Program Using Facial Recognition

In the face of AI content, profiles and slop, Meta hopes a new Facebook Verified program will help human users interact with other humans. Based on a facial recognition selfie, checked against your existing profile pics, the company says the process will only take a few minutes.

Interestingly, Meta has chosen to use facial recognition, given recent legal settlements and the pushback over facial recognition inside its smartglasses. To qualify, you will have to be over 18 and "in good standing" with Facebook's community standards.

Once you've passed the test, your verified badge will appear across Marketplace, Dating and other parts of Facebook's sites and services. The big difference between this and the Facebook badge of old is that it's explicitly only identity confirmation, not endorsement, from Facebook or any guarantee of their trustworthiness. Unlike Meta Verified, it's entirely free.

The feature comes as a wave of scammers and bad actors are using generative AI tools to create and use fake profiles with realistic profile images, photos and backstories, capable of sending automated messages at scale. It's an attempt by Meta to protect its users, to some extent, from fraud and scams.

It's part of several Facebook announcements made this morning, including a new push into "immersive video" (aka more TikTok chasing). It teased a "reimagined experience" that will test full-screen videos for a section of users "the moment they open the app." Perhaps learning lessons from aggressive changes to the base FB experience in the past, Meta says users will have the option to opt out and go back to a typical feed-first interface if they want.

The feature won't be available for Pages or ProMode accounts and will be gradually rolled out across Facebook from Monday, "starting in select markets with plans to expand globally."