Facebook will verify the identity of
people running popular pages, as part of its continued efforts to stem
fake news and propaganda.
Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said all “large” pages would be audited - any which did not clear the process would be prevented from posting.
The move is designed to prevent users who run pages using fake accounts from hiding their true identity.
Mr Zuckerberg said he backed proposed political ads regulation.
It would require technology companies to collect more data on the source of those advertisements.
"Election interference is a problem that's bigger than any one platform," he wrote.
"And that's why we support the Honest Ads Act. This will help raise the bar for all political advertising online."
Also announced today, Facebook will add more transparency over the funding of "issue-based" political ads.
"These steps by themselves won't stop all people trying to game the system," Mr Zuckerberg said.
"But
they will make it a lot harder for anyone to do what the Russians did
during the 2016 election and use fake accounts and pages to run ads."
Russian manipulation
The firm will ask those placing political ads for a US
government-issued ID and a physical mailing address. A unique code will
be sent to the address - and will need to be inputted before the
advertising is allowed to run.
The measures are to counter some
of the tactics apparently used by the Internet Research Agency, the
Russian “troll farm” said to have manipulated Facebook in order to
target American voters.
One of the group’s most effective techniques was to set up pages that
appeared to be run by passionate US-based campaigners. In some cases,
these pages successfully encouraged people to take to the streets and
engage in protests.
A spokeswoman told the luckycoders news reporter that Facebook had
not finalized what would qualify as a large page, but that it would
include other indicators as well as simply the number of followers a
page has.
It will also make it clear if the page has changed its
name. It is understood Russian trolls used innocuous titles to attract
followers to a page, only to then switch the page into promoting a
political view.
Facebook already verifies the identity of
celebrities and other public figures, and the system for verifying page
owners will likely work a similar way, the spokeswoman said.
Crunch hearings
The
changes have been announced ahead of a critical week for Facebook. On
Tuesday, Mr Zuckerberg will begin a round of Congressional hearings into
Facebook’s handling of data and other issues.
It will be the
first time the 33-year-old has personally appeared to represent the
social network he founded, and comes following intense pressure to do
so. Likely on the minds of senators and representatives will be the
extent to which Facebook is able to prevent attempts to manipulate
voters in the future.
In October 2017, the company began forcing
those placing ads to support specific candidates to make it clear who
was funding that promotion.
“We're extending that requirement to
anyone that wants to show 'issue ads’ - like political topics that are
being debated across the country,” the company said.
"We are
working with third parties to develop a list of key issues, which we
will refine over time. To get authorised by Facebook, advertisers will
need to confirm their identity and location.
"Advertisers will be prohibited from running political ads - electoral or issue-based - until they are authorised."
Perhaps
foreshadowing Mr Zuckerberg’s response to politicians next week, the
statement admitted this system would not solve the problem entirely.
"We know we were slow to pick-up foreign interference in the 2016 US elections.
"Today's
updates are designed to prevent future abuse in elections - and to help
ensure you have the information that you need to assess political and
issue ads, as well as content on pages.
"By increasing
transparency around ads and pages on Facebook, we can increase
accountability for advertisers — improving our service for everyone."
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