Facebook to verify identity of people running popular pages amid fake news crack down

Facebook will verify the identity of its most popular pages
AFP/Getty Images
Alexandra Richards6 April 2018

Facebook has announced it will verify the identity of people running popular pages on its site as part of a crack-down on fake news.

The social network will require the administrators of pages with a "large number" of followers to be verified, though the company did not say what this number would be.

Any pages which do not clear this process will be prevented from posting.

Facebook says page administrators and advertisers will be verified by being asked to provide a government-issued ID.

To verify addresses, it will mail a postcard with a unique code the recipient can then use to enter into the site. This is similar to how Airbnb and other services verify addresses.

Facebook also announced on Friday it will require advertisers who want to run not just political ads, but also or so called "issue ads" - which may not endorse specific candidates or parties but discuss political topics - to be verified.

Facebook is trying to strengthen its system ahead of this year's US midterm elections as well as upcoming elections around the world.

Mark Zuckerberg is due to appear before congress on April 11 
REUTERS

It has already required political ads to verify who is paying for them and where the advertiser is located. The issue ads requirement is new.

Sheryl Sandberg , chief operating officer told NBC that if users were able to opt out of being shown ads, "at the highest level, that would be a paid product". This does not mean the company is planning to let users do this.

Mr Zuckerberg has made similar statements in the past, but has added that Facebook remains committed to offering a free service paid for by advertising.

Facebook users can opt out of seeing targeted ads, but cannot shut off ads altogether. Neither can they opt entirely out of Facebook's data collection.

Ms Sandberg gave several interviews as Mr Zuckerberg prepares to testify before Congress next week to explain his company’s part in the Cambridge Analytica data breach scandal.

Cambridge Analytica has been accused of harvesting information from the profiles of 50m Facebook users - now thought to be closer to 87m - and selling it to the Donald Trump campaign to target voters.

Facebook is also facing an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission in what has become its worst privacy crisis in its 14-year history.

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