Facebook users were allowed to send friend requests to anyone they want. This resulted in some users misusing the ability by spamming others with unknown friend requests. Later on, Facebook imposed a limit on the number of awaiting friend request a user could have. Once a user reached that limit, either they had to cancel an already sent request or the other user had to reject it, before they could send a new one.
From the image below it appears Facebook is once again changing this system.
Now when you try to send a friend request to anyone, Facebook wants you to conform that you actually know the person.
The conformation text reads:
Are you sure you know ‘person name’?
If you send a request to a stranger, it will be considered spam and your friend request will be blocked temporarily. Please only send this request if you know ‘person name’.
You can proceed and send the request, but if the user rejects your request, it may result in temporally having this feature blocked for you.
It is not exactly known how Facebook determines whether or not the person you are sending a request to is a stranger or not, but they have this option now for some users.
If this works properly, it will be welcome change and will reduce spam requests in vast numbers. [Image via Zach]