Facebook will verify identities and locations of advertisers posting political and issues ads and will also verify identities of admins of large Pages

We believe that when you visit a Page or see an ad on Facebook it should be clear who it's coming from.

Facebook 2018-04-07

Context & Ripple Effects

This April 2018 announcement is the opening move in what becomes a multi-year escalation of Facebook's identity requirements. The initial scope is narrow: advertisers behind political and issues ads must prove who and where they are, and admins of large Pages face the same check — a direct response to the post-2016 pressure to make sponsorship visible.

The ladder climbs from there. Within weeks Facebook starts inspecting the ads themselves — images, text, targeting, and linked sites — under its new issue-ad policies (content-level checks on issue ads). By August 2019 it demands tax-ID numbers or FEC registration from US political advertisers (tightened political-advertiser rules), and by 2020 Google has adopted universal advertiser verification for all US advertisers (Google's advertiser verification rollout), while Facebook extends identity checks beyond paid ads to organically viral accounts (verification of inauthentic-behavior profiles).

First-order effects

Political and issues advertisers on Facebook must now submit identity and location documentation before their ads run, and admins of large Pages must verify who they are or risk losing control of those Pages.

Second-order effects

Google answers with a broader version of the same requirement — verifying every US advertiser, not just political ones — turning advertiser identity into a competitive baseline rather than a Facebook-specific policy.

Third-order effects

If the pattern holds, platform advertising converges on verified identity as default infrastructure: Facebook keeps tightening requirements through tax-ID and FEC proof, then pushes checks past paid media into organic reach, effectively ending anonymous mass communication at scale on major platforms.

The trend: Social platforms are replacing anonymous ad buying and page operation with layered identity verification, expanding from political ads to all advertisers and eventually to organically viral accounts.

Discussion

@mosseri Adam Mosseri on x
We're requiring verification for advertisers to run political ads and for pages with large follower bases to post at all. We're also launching a public, searchable political ads archive which will include text, images, budgets and demographic audience information for each ad. htt…
@lookner Steve Lookner on x
Zuckerberg announces changes for Facebook political ads, including: —all advertisers must be “verified” —all ads will include who paid for them —you'll be able to see all ads bought by an advertiser Also, managers of all large pages will now need to be “verified” pic.twitter.com/…
@robjective Rob Goldman on x
We said last fall that we're building a new process to verify the identity and location of advertisers running election ads on FB. Today we are announcing three additional initiatives in our work to safeguard elections (1/4) https://newsroom.fb.com/...
@robleathern Rob Leathern on x
This means these political issue ads will also be searchable for 4 years in an ad archive along with pricing/reach/demographics of people who saw them 2/2
@mikeisaac @mikeisaac on x
one guy I talked to got a huge fan base for his issue, and he'd get daily offers to take over his account. 10Gs for like a few hundred thousand followers new owner switches the page content to something like fake stuff around hot button issues like race and the memes go viral
@mikeisaac @mikeisaac on x
Facebook complying with ads requests from congress is a big deal but this part is monumental: there is an entire secondary market for enormous pages that have gathered millions of followers http://twitter.com/...
@facebook @facebook on x
Soon anyone that sees a political ad on Facebook will see it labeled as such. This label will also include information on who paid for it. People in the US will start to see these labels later this spring, with more countries on the way. http://newsroom.fb.com/...
@robleathern Rob Leathern on x
Important update: Facebook will be expanding our definition of a political ad to include not just ads that refer to the election, but also ads that discuss important political issues 1/2 http://newsroom.fb.com/...
@joshconstine Josh Constine on x
Facebook is essentially implementing the Honest Ads Act before Congress can pass it, giving Zuckerberg a better defense when he testifies next week http://techcrunch.com/...
@carolecadwalla Carole Cadwalladr on x
BIG news. HUGE news. Facebook suspends AggregateIQ. The data firm Vote Leave spent £2.9 million with. VL's chief strategist Dom Cummings: “We couldn't have done it without them.” http://tinyurl.com/...
@carolecadwalla Carole Cadwalladr on x
Also America: AIQ worked on your elections too! They've just been suspended by Facebook over the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. They're hugely important in Brexit but they also worked for John Bolton, Thom Tillis, for Ted Cruz & Mercer-affiliated PACs.... http://twitter.com/..…
@carolecadwalla Carole Cadwalladr on x
Here it is. The screenshot that got scrubbed from history. This was deleted from AIQ's site after we put our questions to it. pic.twitter.com/xPc2AfPaGR
@profcarroll David Carroll on x
Facebook suspended AggregateIQ, the SCL Elections licensee embroiled in accusations of helping leave campaigns cheat on Brexit referendum spending and worse. https://www.nationalobserver.com/ ...
@carolecadwalla Carole Cadwalladr on x
This really is massive. AIQ is right at the very heart of Brexit. It was used by four different campaigns: Vote Leave, BeLeave, Veterans for Britain & the DUP. pic.twitter.com/2vD5kHpHo3
@carolecadwalla Carole Cadwalladr on x
...and it's already at the centre of another scandal. If you haven't already, please read @shahmiruk's story of how Vote Leave used BeLeave as an overspending vehicle. He showed such bravery coming forward. And has been treated by govt with such contempt https://www.theguardian.c…
@carolecadwalla Carole Cadwalladr on x
This is where @chrisinsilico revealed AIQ's deep, deep links to Cambridge Analytica. And here's the documents that he gave to Parliament: https://www.parliament.uk/... https://www.theguardian.com/ ...

Chronicles