Facebook, in its long battle against fake accounts and online harassment, has recently launched a unique feature that notifies you when it detects a fake account created by someone who may be impersonating you.
Facebook is set to expand the availability of this useful feature, which it began testing in November and is currently live in 75% of the world.
According to Mashable, when the tool identifies fake account impersonating you, it alerts you. To identify these fake accounts, the feature looks at the profile pictures and names. Upon receiving the alert that someone may be impersonating you, you are asked to say whether the profile is a fake one meant to impersonate you using their personal information.
Though the notifications for this feature are automated, a Facebook team reviews all the profiles it flags as potentially impersonating accounts.
Facebook’s Head of Global Safety Antigone Davis says that though the online impersonation is not that rampant on Facebook, the feature also serves as a preventive measure against online harassment against women.
Davis said the impersonation alerts are part of ongoing efforts to make women around the world feel more safe using Facebook.
“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,” Davis pointed out.
This new tool has its implications for advertisers as well. Identifying and eliminating fake accounts can increase the returns on their investments because it means that more “real” users are seeing their ads.
