Facebook Says Goodbye to Facial Recognition, Cites Societal Concerns About Ethics as Company Faces Backlash

• Meta Platforms Inc, the newly rebranded Facebook holding company, has declared that it will stop using facial recognition technology
• The company has been under fire recently for unethical business practices and aims to address society's concerns as part of its rebranding
• Facebook joins fellow tech companies Amazon, IBM and Microsoft Corporation in disabling facial recognition

Meta Platforms Inc, previously known as Facebook Inc, has issued a statement declaring that they will no longer employ facial recognition in their technology.

In recent months, Facebook Inc has come under fire regarding ethical concerns about the company. Their rebranding effort, which caused their name change, seeks to make necessary changes to its mission and structure.

SABC News reported that despite the popularity of facial recognition technologies, society has become critical of them. People feel it threatens their privacy and can be utilised for intrusive means, such as monitoring certain groups of people.

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The push to disband facial recognition

Meta's vice-president of artificial intelligence, Jerome Pesenti, said that the use of facial recognition has not been officially regulated as laws surrounding the technology are still being drafted, Reuters reported.

Pesenti said that Meta is concerned about the criticism the company has been facing and wants to limit facial recognition usage.

Technology companies, including Amazon, Microsoft, and IBM, have also shut down facial recognition on their platforms with the latter permanently ending sales of the technology. As a result, Meta's disbandment of the technology should be complete by December.

Reactions to Facebook shutting down facial recognition

Both Facebook critics and its users took to Twitter to voice their opinions about Meta eliminating facial recognition technology. Here is what some people had to say:

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@lib_nuII said:

"Facebook first “sold” it to Meta, and now “Facebook” is deleting it. Probably something like that."

@shamechamp asked:

"Serious question, do you believe Facebook about this?"

@Mgeotsa shared:

"And we believe Zuckerberg why?"

@LeoVriends said:

"Meta is all about data. Our data!"

Mark Zuckerberg Rebranded Facebook Inc

Previously Briefly News reported that the Founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, has decided to rebrand the founding company.

This name change will not affect the social media platforms owned by the company; namely Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. It will, however, causes changes to the corporate entity.

Speaking about the name change, CEO Mark Zuckerberg pledged that Meta will focus on the metaverse and not the Facebook product, Business Insider reports. Zuckerberg said that rebranding is a method of communicating clarity regarding Meta's goals.

Source: Briefly News