Ever come across a duplicate account or a cruel prank of a person impersonating someone else on social media? Well, their time(line) is almost up.
As a new measure to end possible online harassment, Facebook has been working on a feature that will send you an alert if it suspects another account is impersonating you.
Right now, it's not hard to set up a duplicate account, as the spoofer can simply use your name and profile picture to make it seem like their account is actually yours.
Facebook's new tool, called Impersonation Checkpoint, detects this impostor account automatically. It will alert you by asking you to identify if it's actually the account of someone who just happens to have the same name as you, or if it's someone trying to impersonate you.
The Facebook team will also manually review any profiles that are flagged as impostors to ensure that the wrong accounts aren't shut down.
Making you feel safe
The feature itself isn't exactly new to everyone, as Facebook has been testing it on a limited basis since November 2015.
However, during the past week, as Facebook held roundtable discussions across the globe on how it can better handle user security and privacy, it revealed that this particular tool has been rolled it out to about 75% of the world, according to Mashable.
"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," Facebook's Head of Global Safety Antigone Davis told the publication.
We aren't sure which regions the Impersonation Checkpoint has rolled out to yet, or exactly what features of a profile its system examines to identify an impostor account. We've asked Facebook for more details about the new feature and we'll update you if we hear back.
In the meantime, if you do come across another account that you suspect is impersonating you or someone else, you can report the account or request more information about it through Facebook's Help Center.
