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17th Mar 2022

Billions of Facebook users to be locked out of app if new feature isn’t used

Charlie Herbert

You should have received an email about it

Facebook is set to lock billions of users out of their accounts if they don’t set up a new security feature.

Recently, Meta sent out emails to its users telling them to enable Facebook Protect. Some people may have glanced at this and assumed it was some sort of scam or spam.

But it’s not.

If you read the email, you’ll see that it warns users will be locked out of their accounts if they don’t set up Facebook Protect, a feature that sets up an extra layer of security for accounts that the platform believes are at high risk of being hacked.

The security feature is quite simple and is basically just setting up two-factor authentication so that any login attempts from an unknown device need to be verified through your phone or another device first.

The email reads: “Your account has the potential to reach a lot more people than an average Facebook user.

“Hackers are often motivated to attack accounts that have a lot of followers, run important Pages, or hold some community significance.”

The email will tell you when you need to set up Facebook Protect by in order to keep access to your account.

It also gives a deadline for when you need to have set up two-factor authentication – 24 March. If you don’t set up Protect by then, you will be locked out of the platform until you do.

To activate the feature you simply need to click the link in the email and follow the instructions.

Alternatively, you can log into your account and activate Protect in the settings.

Go to Settings, then click Security and Login, and there you’ll find a tab telling you whether Facebook Protect is on or off.

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