Facebook to verify major page owners and advertisers

Facebook has announced that it will verify the identity of people running popular pages, as part of its continued efforts to stem fake news and propaganda. Facebook's Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said all “large” pages would be audited and any which do not clear the process would be prevented from posting. Zuckerberg said "thousands" of people would be hired to get the verifications up and running in time for the "critical months" before 2018 elections in the US, Mexico, Brazil, India and Pakistan. A London based newspaper reported that every advertiser who wants to run political ads on Facebook will also need to be verified now by confirming their identity and location, and advertisers that do not pass will be prohibited from running political ads. The new rules will be launched in the US and will expand to the rest of the world in the coming months.