Facebook has limited its Profile Picture Frames feature that
let users create their own frames as well as choose frames of their choice for
their profile pictures from a range of different options in the Frames Gallery.
It all started last year when CNBC observed a rise in the
number of people on Facebook promoting the anti-vaccine campaign via profile
picture frames. As a result, Facebook had to take down the offending frames one
by one. Eventually, the platform decided to remove all the frames altogether,
excluding the ones that were owned by approved partners.
Facebook stated in its message, “We limited the ability to create profile frames on Facebook to authoritative organizations. We’re continuing that work now, so that Profile frames from unapproved Pages and profiles can no longer be applied to new profile pictures.”
The social media company further announced that on March 21
and onwards, “only profile frames from certain government services or
organizations and those providing authoritative information on COVID-19” would
be available.
Among the certain group of organizations and agencies that
would be allowed to create profile frames are: the World Health Organization,
UNICEF, Centers for Disease Control, national government agencies or ministries
of health state and local agencies (including local election offices),
municipal government agencies, emergency response agencies, public health
agencies and local law enforcement.
The good thing about this decision is that it would reduce
the spread of unhelpful or dangerous content around topics like voting and health.
Moreover, this change will not have much of a negative impact on the way people
use Facebook, as there is more engagement features that Facebook is now focused
on, such as its 3D avatars.
