Meta is introducing a free Facebook Verified badge intended to show that an account belongs to a real person, as it responds to the growing use of generative AI to create convincing fake profiles and scams. The badge is an identity check rather than an endorsement of a user’s trustworthiness, and will appear in areas including Marketplace and Dating where fraud risks can be significant.

Users must be over 18, comply with Facebook’s community standards and complete a facial-recognition selfie check against their existing profile photographs; Meta says this should take minutes. The programme will exclude Pages and ProMode accounts, begin rolling out in selected markets from Monday and later expand globally, despite ongoing sensitivity around Meta’s use of facial recognition.