Instagram Asks Some Users to Take a Video Selfie to Verify Their Identity
Some Instagram users have recently reported that Instagram has begun asking them to take a video selfie to verify their identity and log into their accounts.
One of such users is social media consultant Matt Navarra who shared screenshots of Instagram asking him to take a video selfie and show his face from different angles to confirm he is a real person.
Instagram is now using video selfies to confirm users identity
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) November 15, 2021
Meta promises not to collect biometric data. pic.twitter.com/FNT2AdW8H2
Instagram reported that the social media platform asks to verify user identity in cases of suspicious activity. For example, this feature is used if the user quickly likes many posts in a row or quickly starts to follow a large number of accounts.
One of the ways we use video selfies is when we think an account could be a bot. For example, if the account likes lots of posts or follows a ton of accounts in a matter of seconds, video selfies help us determine if there's a real person behind the account or not.
— Instagram Comms (@InstagramComms) November 17, 2021
However, in reality, an account can be subject to additional verification even if someone else likes many of their posts or directs a suspicious activity to the user's account.
Someone liked 65 photos of mine like a maniac on Instagram and it trigerred their bot-detection mechanism.
— Sonny (@darvi_sh) November 12, 2021
There you go. Now go mess with people's accounts and force them to upload a selfie video to Facebook HQ (meta now?) pic.twitter.com/VqBfW9IIiA
why the fuck is instagram making me take a video selfie in order to access my account pic.twitter.com/BxSW0Bnodt
— tender juicy tofu pup (@bettinamak) November 15, 2021
Has anyone else been asked by Instagram to do a selfie video verification? I logged into my account on two different devices. And I've changed my password more than once, so I guess that looks suspicious to them...🤷♀️ I wasn't comfortable doing the selfie vid, now I'm locked out.
— Shannon (@Shannon79053723) November 8, 2021
The social media platform also assured that they do not use this feature for facial recognition but to make sure a bot does not operate the account. The video selfies are viewed by Instagram teams, that is, real people, and are deleted after 30 days.
Instagram has long dealt with bots that spread spam messages, offend users, or artificially inflate followers or like counts.
Meta, which owns Instagram, recently announced that it is shutting down its facial recognition feature. However, the company mentioned that it had only shut down a specific Facebook feature and not the use of facial recognition in general.