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.
