Facebook Buys Startup Confirm for Community Safety Effort
Facebook acquired a company that digitally authenticates government identification, helping it verify profiles.
(Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc. acquired a company that digitally authenticates government identification, a move that may help it verify profiles on its social network.
Facebook didn’t disclose terms of the acquisition of Confirm, a three-year-old company based in Boston. The startup is shutting down its technology while it transitions to Facebook, according to its website. The news was earlier reported by Reuters.
“Their technology and expertise will support our ongoing efforts to keep our community safe,” a Facebook spokeswoman said in an email, without elaborating. Facebook has been working to address activity by fake accounts on its site after a Russian effort to spread false and incendiary information around the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah Frier in San Francisco at sfrier1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Alistair Barr, Andrew Pollack
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