Facebook demands a clear photo of face from a user trying to log onto the site

irst Facebook said that it has plans to ask users for their nude photos so that it can fight revenge porn on their behalf. Now, it is asking some users for a clear photo of their face as they try to login because it wants to be sure that only genuine account holders are logging onto the site.
Facebook is reportedly asking users whenever it suspects unauthorised logins or suspicious login attempts to prove the identity. And that it is doing by telling the users to share their clear photo with the website. With this, the social media giant basically wants you to prove that you aren't a bot.
According to a report, it already happened to a Facebook user a few days ago, who, when he tried to log in to his profile, couldn't. Facebook asked him to upload a picture of him that shows his face clearly. When trying to log in Facebook displayed this message which reads "Please upload a photo of yourself that clearly shows your face."

In a statement to WIRED, a Facebook spokesperson said the website is indeed using the "clear photo" as one of a kind captcha to verify whether the user is a real person or a bot. The spokesperson noted that the photo test is intended to "help us catch suspicious activity at various points of interaction on the site, including creating an account, sending Friend requests, setting up ads payments, and creating or editing ads."
So, if you're a Facebook user, you may go through the same, and the social media platform may suddenly ask you to "upload a photo of yourself that clearly shows your face," to prove you're not a bot.
Facebook said that the photo a user submits will be probably verified by an actual Facebook employee. Explaining the photo test authentication process, the Facebook spokesperson noted that this was an elaborate process, including identifying suspicious activity and checking the uploaded photo. With this process, Facebook is apparently also trying to detect if the profile is authentic or not -- and it is doing so by looking at the photo and whether that picture is unique or not.
Facebook hasn't yet revealed any details about this photo test authentication process. But, what the spokesperson confirmed is that after verifying the picture Facebook will delete it permanently from servers. "We'll check it and then permanently delete it from our servers," notes Facebook.
The Facebook user who initially talked about this photo test authentication process also posted a screenshot of the same (see above) on Twitter and said that even after uploading a photo he actually couldn't log in to his account. Facebook basically locked him out until someone from the company actually verified the photo. After he uploaded a picture of him -- as asked by Facebook -- the social media giant sent him a message stating. "You Can't Log In Right Now. We'll get in touch with you after we've reviewed your photo. You'll now be logged out of Facebook as a security precaution."

 

There are no official words on when Facebook actually started off this authentication process although a Reddit users claimed that he got this unusual photo request in April this month. It is also not clear for now whether Facebook will extend the photo verification exercise to more users and more widely or not. It is worth remembering that Facebook has a policy of only allowing user IDs that have actual names in them. It doesn't allow pseudonyms and actually goes to great lengths to ensure that each Facebook account is associated with a real-person or organisation. However, despite Facebook's big efforts, fake Facebook profiles and pages exist.