In its bid to ensure the people on Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) are who they say they are, the social media giant has added yet another verification tool. From now on, people who manage a Page with a large US audience will have to complete an authorization process if they want to continue posting in their account.
With this authorization process in place, Facebook is looking to protect compromised accounts as well as limiting the reach of fake accounts. By asking the managers of the Page in question to secure their account with two-factor authentication and confirm their primary country location, the issues Facebook has been facing can be restricted.
Facebook hasn’t revealed what exactly “large” means in term of numbers, but it shouldn’t affect the vast majority of small businesses. However, the company did implement a new level of transparency for ads and Pages in June of this year. And this affects any organization running ads on Facebook.
Under those changes, users can view active ads a Page is running across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and its partner network. This includes name changes, dates when the Page was created and more even if the ads aren’t being shown to you.
The New Authorization for Facebook Pages Process
As the US mid-term elections fast approach, bad actors are beginning to ratchet up their “bad behavior”, this according to a July 31, 2018 announcement by Facebook. In that press release, the company said it removed 32 Pages and accounts from Facebook and Instagram.
In the news announcing this new feature, Facebook explained its intention with the policy. The company said, “Our goal is to prevent organizations and individuals from creating accounts that mislead people about who they are or what they’re doing. These updates are part of our continued efforts to increase authenticity and transparency of Pages on our platform.”
When a Page manager needs authorization, they will get a notice in their News Feed to initiate the verification process. The process is supposed to take a few minutes to complete, and if it is not carried out properly, they can’t post anything on their Page.
Moving forward Facebooks said it will be providing users with more information in the Info and Ads section of Pages. It will include a section called People Who Manage This Page to show the primary country location of where the page is being managed and if the Page has been merged with another Page under Page History.
Hopefully, this level of transparency will make it possible for Facebook users to really see who they are engaging with. For businesses of any size, the new feature ensures the ads and content you publish on Facebook Pages come from you and you alone.
Image: Facebook