Instagram is now using video selfies to make sure you are who you say you are

Any social media platform worth its salt (and even many that aren’t) is often infected by droves of fake, spam, and bot accounts. If there’s money to be made off of it, someone’s gonna find a scummy way to do it. That’s just business. Platforms like Twitter and Instagram have tried to curb the spread of these accounts in a number of ways, using CAPTCHA codes and verification emails.

Insta is taking its account verification one step further, requiring that users provide a video selfie to prove that they’re who they say they are.

Instagram gets to your head

Don’t worry, we see the red flags waving too. After all, Instagram is a Meta (formerly Facebook) product, and no one likes to get their hands on personal information quite as much as Zuckerberg’s brand does. But we’re gonna go into this one with good faith.

Social media consultant and commentator Matt Navarra provides a look at the video-selfie prompt over on his Twitter. According to XDA-Developers, Meta and Instagram promise that they won’t collect and keep your biometric data. If prompted to verify your identity with a slow-pan of your face, Instagram will hold onto it (privately) for 30 days before deleting it.

That’s all there is to it, really. Face-checks to verify you’re not pretending to be someone else have been seen before on dating apps like Bumble and Tinder (although both still have catfish problems). On paper, this just looks like a ramped-up version of that. What’s more is that, for now, Instagram is only requiring newly created accounts to provide video-selfies, so if you’ve had your account since 2016 or prior you’re in the clear. Even if you’re not who you say you are.