Facebook has been thinking of new ways to keep its users engaged with the platform. This time, the social network owned by Mark Zuckerberg announced that it will soon let users have multiple profiles linked to the same account. But is this really necessary?
In a press statement (via TechCrunch), Facebook revealed that the new feature will allow people to have different profiles dedicated to different groups of people. For example, the same person will be able to have a profile for personal friends, another for people at work, and another one for family. The company says that creating and switching between profiles will be extremely easy.
To help people tailor their experience based on interests and relationships, we’re testing a way for people to have more than one profile tied to a single Facebook account.
More specifically, users will be able to create up to five different profiles under the same account. The additional profiles don’t have to include the person’s real name, as long as it doesn’t contain any numbers or special characters. However, the user’s main profile must still have the person’s real name.
This is a big move compared to the current Facebook policy, which says that creating more than one personal profile on the social network is against the platform’s standards.
Facebook argues that the new multiple profiles option can also be useful for people to organize their interests, as you can have a specific profile to follow topics in a subject you like. Of course, the additional profiles will also be subject to Facebook’s rules, and breaking them will result in penalties for the entire account.
Do we really need additional Facebook profiles?
Other social networks like Instagram and Twitter already offer ways to separate content that can only be seen by selected users, which is becoming a concern as some people don’t want to have their personal content exposed to school or work colleagues.
In fact, Facebook has already offered a similar feature for years, which lets you create and select groups of friends who can see a specific post, photo, or video. Having multiple profiles makes this process more intuitive and organized, but Facebook’s intentions seem to be more related to the fact that the social network has been losing users to competing platforms like TikTok.
In February, Facebook shares dropped more than 20% due to the company’s “disappointing” results from the previous fiscal quarter. In addition to lower than expected revenue, Facebook also saw a reduction in the number of active users.
Now Facebook has been looking for new ways to make its platform interesting for people again. But while the company wants people creating more Facebook profiles, people seem to be more interested in quitting Facebook for good.
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