The present invention provides a method and an apparatus for establishing a user relationship in a social networking application to improve the information security. The method includes: receiving a user addition request; determining whether the user addition request is initiated from a predefined trustworthy relationship scenario, and if not, performing verification on a user initiating the request; and establishing a user relationship according to a verification result. The apparatus includes: a request acquisition module, configured to receive the user addition request; a scenario determining module, configured to determine whether there is a predefined trustworthy relationship scenario associated with the request, and if not, inform a verification module; the verification module, configured to perform verification on a user initiating the request, and inform a relationship establishing module of a verification result; and the relationship establishing module, configured to establish the user relationship.