You might have thought that Facebook was on a slow decline with the rise of alternative social networks like Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, and even TikTok. This may be true but the execs at Facebook HQ are not happy with the situation and think they have a way to stop the rot, so to speak. They want to give every Facebook user the chance to have up to five profiles per account. Let’s take a deeper look into this.
This move from Facebook is apparently to offer users a way to compartmentalize their Facebook use and separate out all the different interactions they have into separate profiles.
Think about what it would be like if you had a different Facebook account for your friends, then another one for your co-workers, and then another one again for your family. You would get to keep everything separate but quickly and easily slip between the different accounts you have on your profile. In a letter to TechCrunch, Facebook spokesperson Leonard Lam said:
“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 […] Anyone who uses Facebook must continue to follow our rules.”
That last bit means that all the different profiles will still have to follow Facebook terms and conditions and so will have to comply with all Facebook policies such as those prohibiting the impersonation of other people. Facebook says that any violations committed by a single profile will impact the whole account and not just the single profile. There is even the possibility that a whole account could be banned based on the behavior of a single account.
This is definitely a move from Facebook to try and carve out new use cases for users who are increasingly being splintered off in search of different experiences elsewhere. As to whether it will work or not remains to be seen. The company is currently testing this new feature with a select group of users so there is no official news as of yet as to when we can expect to see it.
In other Facebook News, the social giant has recently overhauled Facebook groups to try and make them a bit more like Discord.
