Meta is testing a new facial recognition service across its Facebook platform in order to crackdown on celeb bait scams taking over the site.

The trial is taking place about three years after Meta ceased its facial recognition operations on Facebook after it faced pushback from privacy regulators.

About 50,000 public figures will be enrolled in the test, which will compare their Facebook profile photos to photos used in advertisements which are suspected to be scams. If the images are found to match, and the ad is a scam, then Meta will block the ad.

The company intends to expand the trial globally in December, except for in areas where it does not have regulatory clearance such as the UK, the EU, South Korea, and two US states.

Essentially, the trial will target public figures whose appearance had been identified as being used in scam advertisements.

“The idea here is: roll out as much protection as we can for them. They can opt out of it if they want to, but we want to be able to make this protection available to them and easy for them,” Meta’s vice president of content policy, Monika Bickert, said in a press briefing.

The trial provides a rare opportunity for Meta to test its oft-labelled invasive facial recognition technology to address rising concerns about the growing number of scams appearing on its site in a manner that will reduce complaints over its user data handling.

Meta is currently facing lawsuits which claim it is not doing enough to stop celeb bait scams, which often rely images of famous people generated by AI, to scam users into giving money to fraudulent investment schemes.

Recommended reading

• Fraud and Scam Complaints On the Rise
• Meta Teams Up with UK Banks to Help Fight Fraud
• Hackers Have Stolen More Than £1BN in Crypto Already This Year

To mitigate any privacy complaints, Meta said that it will immediately delete facial data generated in its comparisons with suspected scam ads, regardless of if the ad was fraudulent or not.

Prior to the tests, Meta put the facial recognition technology through vigorous privacy risks reviews, and discussed the trial with regulators, privacy advocates, and policymakers before starting the programme.

The company also plans to use the facial recognition tool to let non-famous users of Facebook and Instagram to regain access to compromised accounts.