According to screenshots provided to Twitter by social media strategist Matt Navarra, Instagram is requesting some users to produce a video selfie displaying different angles of their face to verify that they’re a real person. Bot accounts, which can send spam messages, harass users, or be used to artificially inflate like or follower counts, have long been a problem for the social network.
In a follow-up tweet, Instagram, which is owned by Meta, says it’s asking suspicious accounts to prove they’re real people, not bots.
The business began testing the functionality last year, but ran into technical hurdles, according to XDA Developers. Several customers have stated that they were recently prompted to record a video selfie to validate their current accounts.
Bettina Makalintal, another writer on Twitter, shared 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 it shows that the verification screen is appearing for multiple people.
I tried multiple times to create a shady-looking Instagram account but was never given the video challenge. Instagram announced on Twitter that accounts with questionable activity (such as rapidly following a large number of profiles) may be requested to take a video selfie. Instagram also stated that the tool does not utilize facial recognition and that the videos are reviewed by Instagram personnel.
Given Meta’s recent revelation that one of its Face Recognition services would be shut down, the move may come as a surprise to some. However, the business has subsequently clarified that it was simply shutting down a single Facebook function, not Meta’s entire usage of face recognition.
Despite this, Instagram has stated that the video selfie function would not utilize face recognition and that the video will be erased after 30 days.
Meta’s guarantee that the data will not be stored or shared may not be enough to comfort some users who are already wary of Meta / Facebook.
People may recall a problem that allowed attackers to gain access to Instagram users’ purportedly private birthday information (which would soon be required to use the service) with only a DM. Of course, Instagram hasn’t pledged to destroy that birthday information like it has with the video selfie, but it’s hard to blame anyone (especially children or those who want to remain anonymous) for being hesitant to provide such information.
