More Instagram users to get confirmed accounts
Facebook's photo-sharing platform Instagram is making it easier to verify profiles with a blue checkmark—just like celebrities have. The new feature is intended for accounts with a large number of followers, co-founder and chief technology officer Mike Krieger explained in a blog post.
They can request confirmation via their profile page and must send a copy of their documents, among other things. Instagram will review the requests taking into account the popularity of a profile, among other things. Fake accounts and automated bot profiles are a problem not only for Instagram, but also for Facebook and Twitter. That's why the services mark genuine profiles, especially of celebrities or public figures, with the blue checkmarks.
However, Twitter had to scale back its verification program last year after the confirmation of a racist's account caused a scandal in the US. The short message service defended itself by saying that the checkmark was actually only intended to confirm a person's identity on Twitter. However, the symbol next to the user name is often interpreted as a sign of approval or the importance of a person, Twitter admitted.
Instagram also wants to display more information about a profile in the future and allow the use of other services to securely log into an account. The measures come against the backdrop of fears of new propaganda campaigns in the run-up to the important congressional elections in the US in November. During the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, Russia - according to U.S. allegations - made large-scale attempts to manipulate public opinion via social networks. (SDA)
