It’s been a constant complaint among social media users who get locked out of their accounts. Regaining access can be arduous and can take weeks.
But Meta has launched a new tool to help social media users access their accounts quicker after they have been locked out.
Social media pages are not just to keep up with friends. Many people use their profiles to manage online business activity and personal brands. NBC 6 Responds has heard from social media users who have lost access to their accounts.
“I even started to send emails to the help account, I had a feeling it was a shot in the dark and they weren’t going to answer me,” Carmen Fraga told NBC 6 Responds.
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Fraga reached out to NBC 6 Responds when she couldn’t get into the social media pages she managed at the time.
But Meta’s new tool could help people who find themselves in a similar situation as Fraga.
“The video selfie option will be right there, you can immediately go down and take it,” Lori Moylan with Meta said.
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Moylan is the public policy director with Meta and explains when people lose access to their Facebook or Instagram accounts the account holder must verify their identity.
This can be done by uploading an official ID or an official certificate with your name.
But now there is a new option which offers the option to take a selfie to verify your identity.
This option uses facial recognition technology and is like the technology you might use to unlock your phone or other apps.
“We’ll take the selfie and compare it against the pictures that are in your profile pictures so we can make sure it’s a match and you are indeed trying to reclaim an account that is in fact yours” Moylan said.
She says after they verify its you, you will be asked to update your password and then you will be able to access your account again.
For this option to work there needs to be at least some pictures on the account to be used as reference. If not, the user would need to use the old verification process.
This tool has already started to rollout and will be available for all users within the next couple of months.
If your account has been hacked or you have been locked out, you can visit facebook.com/hacked.
