In a blog post, Facebook rolled out this new requirement in an effort to make it more difficult for people to create Pages using “fake or compromised” Facebook accounts.
“Our goal is to prevent organizations and individuals from creating accounts that mislead people about who they are or what they’re doing,” reads the Facebook blog post. “These updates are part of our continued efforts to increase authenticity and transparency of Pages on our platform.”
The authorization is not applicable to all pages, if a manager of a Page requires authorization they will see a blurb at the top of their Facebook News Feed that will direct them to start the process of securing their personal account with two-factor authentication and confirming the country where their primary address is located.
In addition, Facebook says it is adding more information to all Pages. This includes showing if/ when a Page has merged with another Page and showing the primary country location of all those who manage the Page.
Those who fail to complete the authorization will not be able to post on their Pages.
These new changes will come this month, and “in the coming weeks” Instagram users will also see similar changes where they’ll be able to know more about accounts with larger audiences.
“New policies to make Facebook Pages that reach a sizable number of Americans more secure, and their management more transparent, seems like a good first step on Facebook’s part,” writes Sarah Perez in a TechCrunch piece on the news. “Though it’s still possible that those aiming to disrupt democracy and seed division will eventually find workarounds for these measures at some point in the future.”
According to Reuters, as of last week Facebook has removed 32 pages and accounts from Facebook and Instagram after identifying a new political campaign on the platform that was meant to influence users ahead of the November U.S. congressional elections.
