Meta is expanding tests of facial recognition as an anti-scam measure to combat celebrity scam ads and more broadly, the Facebook owner announced Monday.

Facebook parent company Meta Platforms Inc. will start using facial recognition technology to crack down on scams that use pictures of celebrities to look more legitimate, a strategy referred to as “celeb-bait ads.

New Delhi: Three years after a data-privacy controversy forced Meta Platforms to halt the facial recognition feature, the Mark Zuckerberg-led parent of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp is bringing back the contentious technology. But this time, it is being cautious by rolling it out slowly and for a very selective subset of purposes.