Facebook Is Building A Feature That Shows If Someone Is Pretending To Be You

Finally, Facebook is testing a feature that'll keep catfishing at bay. If some poser uses your photo as his or her own profile picture, along with your name, Facebook will alert you to the creep's sneaky attempts.

From there, you'll be asked to identify if that person is, in fact, impersonating you, or if it's a false alarm. While the alerts will be automated, real humans will be checking profiles for identity fraud.

According to Mashable, Facebook began testing this feature back in November of last year and is currently sifting through 75 percent of profiles.

Antigone Davis, Facebook's Head of Global Safety, says the company plans to expand the feature soon. While impersonation isn't an especially common problem on the site, Davis told Mashable,

We heard feedback prior to the roundtables and also at the roundtables that this was a point of concern for women. And 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.

It's a good sign Facebook is taking these concerns seriously and trying to make the social network a safer environment for women. In addition to flagging impersonators, the company plans to make it easier for users to report nonconsensual nude photos.

Though Facebook has explicitly prohibited people from sharing nonconsensual images in the past, it's taking more serious efforts to ensure victims feel protected when reporting abuse.

Citations: Facebook is testing a feature that alerts you if someone is impersonating your account (Mashable)