Facebook Requires Identity Confirmation When Running Political Ads

Facebook requires that you confirm your identity as a United States Citizen when running ads related to politics or national issues. I just went through this process to confirm my identity as a US Citizen with Facebook, and here’s what I learned, along with some background about why I needed to go through this process.

Interviewed on CBS News

As you might recall, I was recently interviewed on CBS News by Jack Fink, the political reporter for CBS 11 TV here in Dallas. CBS News contacted me to help explain the process behind Google’s search results after President Donald Trump tweeted about Google’s search results being rigged.

Promoting the Interview

Since I was interviewed by CBS News, this gives my personal brand some additional credibility. Especially because I was mentioned by CBS News as being one of the “top experts in the country for what’s called search engine optimization (SEO), the process of making a website more attractive to the search engines.” News coverage of you and your company is something that you should be trying to get. It’s essentially free publicity, and it’s tough to put a dollar figure on the amount of business news coverage like this can bring to you and your business.

Because I was interviewed by CBS News, my goal is to use this to get the article (or blog posts on my blog) in front of as many potential customers as possible–especially in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. So, I decided to “boost the post” on Facebook, so that more people would see it. The goal here is not of a political nature at all. The goal is to get my name in front of as many people as possible (potential customers), and help establish myself and my “personal brand” more.

To get this interview and news in front of more people, the only way to do that (currently) on Facebook is to boost the post. However, because the post happens to include political content, being that it’s related to President Trump’s tweet, Facebook immediately required that I prove I was a US Citizen in order to boost the post.

Prove You’re a US Citizen to Facebook

Facebook now has a strict policy when it comes to promoting or sponsoring political content or national issues. They require that you prove that you’re a US Citizen, and they use a verification process. You must get authorized to set up and manage the ads from a desktop computer. Essentially, to get authorized, you must:

Provide a copy of your driver’s license or other State-issued ID. You have to upload a copy of both sides of your ID.

Provide your physical address (and mailing address).

Wait for them to send you a letter in the mail that includes a unique code to complete the process.

Once you get the letter, you have to enter the unique code at Facebook.com/id by a certain date.

I went through that process, and in about 5 days I received the letter in the mail with the confirmation code, as shown below:

The process overall was pretty easy, and I can understand why Facebook needs to verify your identity. But there should be a faster way for one to do this. I do understand that a letter needs to be sent out by Facebook. Hopefully since I’m now verified, perhaps this might make it easier for me to be verified by Facebook (with the blue check mark)? The only part of this process that I’m frustrated about is the amount of time it took to get it done.