There are a lot of things we do on a daily basis, and Facebook is probably the first on that list. Besides, there’s one more thing you might be hearing a lot these days; mandatory linking of Aadhaar card to respective bank accounts and other platforms that require your unique ID. You might be thinking what’s the connection between Facebook and Aadhaar card? Well, we might soon see a new association between the two.
As we are aware of how Facebook is battling against fake news and fake profiles, the new association might help the social media platform curb these issues.
According to a report by MySmartPrice, Facebook is prompting few users to enter their names as per their Aadhaar card. Although, Facebook isn’t forcing users to link their Aadhaar cards to register a new account, prompting it to selected users suggests a possible union in works between the two.
Image: MySmartPrice
The report mentions that the Aadhaar prompt isn’t pushed to everyone who registers for a Facebook account. Also, the prompt is only encountered when creating a new account from the Safari web browser on iOS devices.
We tried the same — unfortunately, we did not encounter the prompt.
Based on the news, Deccan Chronicle reached out to Facebook to confirm the report. Facebook replied in an email stating that it is just a ‘small test’ and ‘only a small percentage of people who use Facebook on mobile in India are seeing it’. This is not mandatory – ‘it’s a prompt’, but people do not need to use the name featured on their Aadhaar card.
“We want to make sure people can use the names they're known by on Facebook, and can easily connect with friends and family. This is a small test where we provide additional language when people sign up for an account to say that using the name on their Aadhaar card makes it easier for friends to recognize them. This is an optional prompt which we are testing, people are not required to enter the name on their Aadhaar card.”
This could be an initial move towards tackling fake news, fake profiles and hate news on the social platform. While many fear the use of their AADHAAR card details being shared on the social platform, Facebook needs to pacify the users and be more transparent on this rather than simply implementing the same without any prior notice. While we respect the move to cause a benefit to society, the use of Aadhaar card could be something too harsh at this moment.
What's still unclear whether this will also be applied to WhatsApp and other social platforms from the tech giant.
