Impersonating someone’s social media account is one of the growing problems we have in the online world. Anyone, from anywhere, is able to create a Facebook account (or any other social network account for that matter), that mimics an existing user, usually to attack them or damage their reputation.
Well, it seems Facebook’s had enough, and has now created a tool that has the ability to automatically detect these false accounts. Although currently only available in 75% of countries, the tool recognizes if someone is using an existing photo and name, and then sends an alert to the existing user to inform them.
Antigone Davis, Facebook’s Head of Global Saftey told Mashable: “We heard feedback prior to the roundtables and also at the roundtables that this was a point of concern for women, and it’s a real point of concern for some women in certain regions of the world where it [impersonation] may have certain cultural or social ramifications.”
She also stated that these alerts are part of Facebook’s ongoing efforts to make users feel more safe on the network.
