Facebook will scrap its facial-recognition feature in the coming weeks, deleting the faceprints of more than 1 billion people.

Facebook's auto tag, which had emerged as a key tool for sharing photos on the social media platform, has drawn criticism from governments and users for its misuse of facial-recognition feature.

Facebook introduced the facial recognition system in 2010 that automatically detects people in videos, photos, and memories. Once the changes are implemented, users will no longer see a suggested tag in photos or videos in which they feature.

"We believe that limiting the use of facial recognition to a narrow set of use cases is appropriate," Jerome Pesenti, vice-president of artificial intelligence at Meta, formerly Facebook Inc, wrote in a blog post on Tuesday.

He said the company was weighing the positive use cases for the feature against the growing societal concerns about the technology being invasive.

Facebook has come under the scrutiny of regulators and lawmakers over user safety and other ethics issues on its platforms.

According to critics, facial recognition technology could compromise privacy, normalise intrusive surveillance, and target marginalised groups.

Last year, Facebook paid $550 million as a settlement in an Illinois class-action lawsuit, which alleged that the firm was using the feature on residents without their consent. In 2019, the Federal Trade Commission fined Facebook $5 billion on charges against its privacy practices.

Other companies have also shut down use of the facial recognition technology. IBM ended its facial recognition product sales. Microsoft and Amazon last year said they would not allow the police to use their facial recognition tool, seeking clearer rules around surveillance technology.

According to experts, once a person’s biometrics are in a database using facial recognition technology, it is difficult to control its use.

“Once your data is collected, you as the data subject effectively lose the ability to control its usage,” Alessandro Acquisti, professor at Carnegie Mellon University, told The Wall Street Journal.

Facebook will roll out the removal globally and is likely to complete it by December, a spokesperson told Reuters.

More than a third of Facebook's daily active users have chosen the face recognition setting on the social media platform.

The move is part of the company’s efforts to rebrand, which includes changing its name to Meta Platforms and halting its new Instagram for children.

The shift from facial-recognition technology will impact the automatic alt text, a system used by the company to make image descriptions for the visually impaired.

"In the case of facial recognition, its long-term role in society needs to be debated in the open, and among those who will be most impacted by it," said Pesenti.