Explained: What Is Facebook Protect And Can You Enrol In It?

Meta has announced that it will expand its 'Facebook Protect' to cover prominent Facebook users in India by the end of 2021.

The project was launched in 2018 and was expanded ahead of the US Presidential elections in 2020.

What Is Facebook Protect and How Does It Work?

Under Facebook Protect, users will get stronger security protections against bad faith actors as well as potential hacking threats.

The project will provide better security to official pages of politicians, journalists and activists.

Admins of pages who have enrolled in the program will be made to go through Page publishing authorisation regardless if their individual accounts have been enrolled in the program.

For now, the project will rely on users using two-factor authentication through third-party apps while Facebook would monitor the accounts and pages for potential hacking threats.

Is The Program Available For Everyone And How Do You Enrol?

According to Meta Head of Security Policy Nathaniel Gleicher, the program only covers human rights defenders, journalists and government officials.

"These people are at the center of critical communities for public debate. They enable democratic elections, hold governments and organizations accountable, and defend human rights around the world. Unfortunately this also means that they are highly targeted by bad actors," Gleicher said in a blog post.

So far, more than 1.5 million accounts have enabled Facebook Protect with 9,50,000 accounts newly enrolling in two-factor authentication.

Meta is on track to expanding the coverage to 50 countries by the end of 2021.

For now, only people who are susceptible to be targetted on Facebook can enrol in the program.

People eligible to enrol in Facebook Protect will get a notification from Facebook to enrol in the program.

So unless you are a politician, journalist or a human rights activist, you cannot enrol in Facebook Protect.