Facebook is rolling out Facebook Protect to more countries.
The social media platform has announced it will be expanding its security program – which is designed to help groups of people that are more likely to be targeted by malicious hackers – to more countries, after it first launched in 2018.
Facebook Protect was set up to give more protection to the likes of human rights defenders, journalists, and government officials, who often find themselves at the “centre of critical communities for public debate” and therefore can be bigger targets for malicious activity.
The feature comes with added security abilities including two-factor authentication and monitors for potential hacking threats.
In a blog post uploaded to the Meta website, Nathaniel Gleicher, Head of Security Policy said: “We first tested Facebook Protect in 2018 and expanded it ahead of the 2020 US election. We began our global expansion in September of this year.
“Since then, more than 1.5 million accounts have enabled Facebook Protect, and of those, nearly 950K accounts newly enrolled in two-factor authentication.
“We are on track to expand the program to more than 50 countries by the end of the year, including the United States, India, and Portugal.”
The blog post did not list all of the countries which are set to get Facebook Protect next, but Nathaniel did clarify that users will not have to take any action until they get a notification telling them they’re “eligible to enroll”.
