Facebook says it wants to make it easier to showcase your alter ego on social media.
The social network has a rule that bars users from having multiple Facebook accounts but gives businesses, organizations and public figures the option to create pages. Now Facebook is testing a way for users to create up to five profiles linked to one account. Facebook said that switching between the profiles will require only two taps.
The experiment shows how the site has been trying to evolve beyond just a place to share updates with family and friends. Facebook users could create profiles dedicated to their hobbies, such as cooking, design or travel, the social network said Thursday. They could also have a separate profile where they correspond only with certain family members or friends.
Facebook has been facing more competition from apps such as TikTok, where people share short videos about a variety of topics, including their interests. In February, the social network reported that it lost daily users for the first time in its history, but that number jumped up in the first three months of this year. A total of 1.96 billion people logged in to Facebook daily in the first quarter, the social network said. Facebook has also been encouraging users to join more groups on the platform so they can chat with people who share similar hobbies.
The social network said that Facebook profiles will have to abide by the platform’s rules, which prohibit people from posting certain content, such as hate speech and threats of violence. The profiles can’t be used to misrepresent a user’s identity or impersonate other people. The company declined to provide an estimate of how many users are part of the test.