I know at least a handful of people who have reached out for help combating impersonators who replicate their profiles on Facebook and aim to defame them or even engage in criminal activities in their name. The good news is that Facebook is now taking steps to combat the situation and relieve us from such threats.
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According to Mashable, the leading social media network is working on a feature that will alert users in case it spots suspicious profiles that impersonate them. When showing the alert, users will be asked to verify whether the profile is indeed impersonating them, or not posing a threat.
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Upon flagging a profile as impersonation, Facebook team will then manually review it and remove it. Although the feature is being tested since November 2015, it is now live in more than 75% of the countries that Facebook covers. This feature will help put an end to online bullying and harassment, two things that Facebook takes very very seriously.
Apart from the impersonation alert, Facebook is also working on a few more features that aim to improve security and privacy on the platform. More specifically, Facebook is testing improved photo privacy settings by launching a checkup feature and a new way of reporting non-consensual intimate images. The latter will also offer access to support groups for victims of such abuse.