Instagram reveals its purpose in video selfie verification

Instagram has launched ‘video selfie’ verification to block fake profiles. The platform, which requested a video in which the head was turned in different directions from the users, drew the reaction of those who were concerned about privacy. In early November, Meta announced that it would shut down the facial recognition system it uses on Facebook and delete more than 1 billion templates from the systems.

Although Meta has turned off the facial recognition feature on Facebook, the video selfie verification it has enabled on Instagram has caused confusion. Making statements on the subject from its official social media accounts, the company also explained its purpose in detail, noting that the new system should not be confused with facial recognition.

Instagram announces it doesn’t use facial recognition

The @InstagramComms account, managed by Instagram’s PR team, made statements on Twitter after the reactions. Stating that they do not use facial recognition, the social media company said that it started video selfie verification to understand whether there is a bot or a human behind an account.

Instagram doesn’t use facial recognition, and we don’t use it for video selfies either. We launched video selfies over a year ago to help verify that an account is a person and not a bot.

One of the reasons we use video selfies is because we think an account might be a bot. For example, if the account likes a lot of posts or follows a lot of accounts in a few seconds, video selfies will help us determine if there is a real person behind the account.

The most significant confusion regarding selfie verification was the privacy concern. Mentioning this, Instagram stated that it will not keep the video sent by users permanently and said, “Our teams review video selfies and video selfies are deleted within 30 days. ” shared the information.

Instagram does not currently require video selfie verification from everyone. As the company notes, verification is activated to detect that those who follow a bunch of accounts in a row or like the posts are not spam. The user who sent the requested video is being reviewed by the teams and if it is found to be real, the ban on his account is removed.

In addition to video selfies, Instagram sometimes requires more stringent verification processes, such as sending a user ID card. In some cases, just e-mail or phone verification is enough.