Three years after Meta shut down facial recognition software on Facebook amid a groundswell of privacy and regulator pushback, the social media giant said on Tuesday it is testing the service again as part of a crackdown on "celeb bait" scams.

Meta is bringing facial recognition tech back to its apps more than three years after it shut down Facebook’s “face recognition” system amid a broader backlash against the technology. Now, the social network will begin to deploy facial recognition tools on Facebook and Instagram to fight scams and help users who have lost access to their accounts,

Meta is bringing back facial recognition technology, this time as a way to crack down on celebrity scam ads on Facebook and Instagram.

Meta is gradually releasing facial recognition technology across Facebook and Instagram to help users locked out of their accounts and to spot scam ads that improperly use a celebrity's image. Why it matters: This is the first major expansion of Meta's facial recognition system since its 2021 rollback.