Instagram has announced it will start asking some users to provide their government ID to prove who they are.
According to Instagram, the new policy is meant to help cut down on accounts that try to mislead people or engage in “coordinated inauthentic behavior.” Instagram goes on say a review could be triggered when they see “the majority of someone’s followers are in a different country to their location, or if we find signs of automation, such as bot accounts for example.”
Once an account has been reviewed and verified, the user will be able to continue using it. Instagram claims that IDs will be stored securely, and then deleted within 30 days after the review is completed. They also claim that the information will not be shared on the person’s profile, preserving pseudonymity.
While Instagram is to be commended for wanting to protect users, it’s hard not to imagine what could go wrong. After all, Instagram is owned by Facebook, a company that has proven time again it lacks either the ability or the necessary motivation to protect its users privacy. What could possibly go wrong with giving it copies of government IDs?