For a variety of reasons, the Facebook group recently decided to change its name to Meta.
Meanwhile, due to the countless scandals that began with the statements of Frances Haugen and culminated with the so-called Facebook Papers, a huge amount of documents that made Mark Zuckerberg’s wrists tremble.
And then (perhaps also as a consequence of this) for a change of strategy: in the near future, the bulk of the energies and investments of the Menlo Park company will be directed to the metaverse.
Ma those who believed that the social network, the only asset of the group that is still proudly called Facebook, would be marginalized were wrong. On the other hand, it would have been impossible to ignore the fact that it is the most popular platform in the world. Able to count on nearly three billion users.
And indeed a series of operations seem to show that Facebook is still firmly in the thoughts of the tech giant.
Not only because there seems to be an ever-increasing attention to the removal of accounts and contents that propagate fake news.
But also because action is being taken on user safety, one of the sectors that Facebook Papers have shown as one of the most fragile.
The Facebook Protect program operates in this sense, now also active in Italy. But what is Facebook Protect and how does it work?
What is Facebook Protect
Facebook Protect is an initiative launched for the first time in 2018. It is now also available in our country, as reported by the Facebook help center.
A note that appeared on the social media blog on Thursday 2 November explains well what Facebook Protect consists of, and also traces a short history.
It is, in a nutshell, of a program designed to protect all categories of people who are most at risk of malicious hacker attacks. And therefore, above all, journalists, human rights activists and government officials.
Explains the Facebook note: “These people are at the center of communities critical to public debate. They enable democratic elections, hold governments and organizations accountable and uphold human rights around the world. Unfortunately this also means that they are highly targeted by bad actors ”.
When Facebook Protect is born
The Facebook Protect program started in 2018, but has been refined and expanded ahead of the 2020 US presidential election.
Since September 2021 Facebook Protect has been extended to a number of countries, and here it is now also available in Italy.
The program has already reached 1.5 million accounts, of which 950 thousand registered with two-factor authentication. By the end of the year, 50 countries will be covered.
Two-factor authentication
With two-factor authentication, Facebook Protect improves the security of online accounts.
In the blog note, the Meta group reminds users that “right now, anyone can sign up for two-factor authentication and everyone should. However, this important feature has historically been underused on the Internet, even by people who are more likely to be targeted by malicious hackers, such as journalists, activists, political candidates and others. “
The Facebook Protect program has made registration of two-factor authentication more streamlined, precisely so that as many people as possible can use it. The note continues: “In early tests, streamlining sign-up flows, improved customer support, and the requirement for Facebook Protect drove adoption rates to over 90% in one month for these groups. In the coming months, we will carefully expand this requirement globally. We are encouraged by our first findings and will continue to improve Facebook Protect over time. “
But how do you sign up for Facebook Protect?
In reality, it is the social network itself that decides whether or not each user is eligible to be part of Facebook Protect.
All eligible members in our country will receive, in the next few days, an account notification, with more information and the steps to follow for registration. Double authentication requires you to enter a code to enter with your password.
In addition, Facebook Protect provides additional protections for accounts and pages, such as continuous monitoring against hacker threats.
Nathaniel Gleicher, Head of Security Policy of Meta, on the occasion of the presentation of Facebook Protect in Italy, said: “We know that there will always be a small circle of users who will not register immediately, for example those who are less active on our platform at time of communication.
Nonetheless, we believe this is an important step forward for the communities frequently targeted ”.