Facebook to verify users whose posts go viral rapidly

In 2018, Facebook had first started to verify the identity of people managing Pages with large audiences.

Facebook has been struggling for a while dealing with extremist content on its platform and that’s not new. (REUTERS)

Facebook said on Thursday that it will now verify the identity of people who have a pattern of inauthentic behaviour on its platform and whose posts start to go viral rapidly.

"Now we're extending ID verification to some profiles with large audiences in the US," the social networking giant said in a statement.

If someone chooses not to verify their identity or the ID provided does not match the linked Facebook account, the distribution of their viral posts will remain reduced so that fewer people see them.

"In addition, if the person posting is a Page admin, they'll need to complete Page Publishing Authorisation and will not be able to post from their Page until their account is verified through our existing Page Publisher Authorisation process," said Facebook.

The company said that IDs will be stored securely and won't be shared on the person's profile.

"We want people to feel confident that they understand who's behind the content they're seeing on Facebook," the company added.