Meta Platforms' Facebook and Instagram were largely restored for most users after an outage that impacted thousands in the U.S. on Monday, according to outage tracking website Downdetector.com.

There were more than 8,000 incidents of people reporting issues with Facebook and over 4,000 reports of issues with Instagram as of 1:44 p.m. Eastern time.

Meta will begin to deploy facial recognition tools on Facebook and Instagram to fight scams and help users who have lost access to their accounts, the company said in an update.

When Meta shuttered its facial recognition system in 2021, deleting the face scan data of one billion users, it cited "growing societal concerns". In August this year, the company

Facial recognition is one of the most polarizing technologies on the market, but Meta is hoping people will be more willing to accept it if it means they can keep their Facebook and Instagram accounts under their control.

Meta is bringing back facial recognition technology, this time as a way to crack down on celebrity scam ads on Facebook and Instagram.

Meta is gradually releasing facial recognition technology across Facebook and Instagram to help users locked out of their accounts and to spot scam ads that improperly use a celebrity's image. Why it matters: This is the first major expansion of Meta's facial recognition system since its 2021 rollback.

Facebook and Instagram have a problem. Well, they have many, many problems, but one of the ones they feel like addressing is “celeb-bait ads and impersonation.” According to a new post from parent company Meta,