Following Twitter’s lead, Facebook has added verified pages and profiles for celebrities, other “high-profile” people such as politicians, and businesses.
“This update makes it even easier for subscribers to find and keep up with journalists, celebrities and other public figures they want to connect to,” a Facebook representative told VentureBeat when the verified profiles were originally announced. It should also make it harder for scammers to create fake Facebook accounts for celebrities and charities in order to solicit illegitimate donations.
Verified pages and profiles will be shown with a little blue checkmark, indicating that Facebook has investigated and determined that the account is genuine, not a parody, and legitimately created by the person or brand it claims to represent.
To verify accounts, Facebook said you’ll need to submit government-issued photo ID, which Facebook promises to delete immediately after verification:
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Interestingly, Facebook says it will proactively reach out to verify accounts, but there is no mechanism to request verification. Instead, Facebook recommends that celebrities or public figures who believe that they are being impersonated should report a fake account.
Facebook’s verified accounts follow Twitter, which created verified accounts in 2009, by about four years. Google+ launched verified accounts very early in that social network’s history, back in 2011.
Image credit: Facebook
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