It looks like I won’t be getting Meta Verified any time soon. I saw that my Facebook Profile is eligible to be Meta Verified, meaning that once I verify my identity, I can pay them $12.98 (includes tax) for being Meta Verified. However, Facebook failed to verify my identity, so I won’t be verified.
I’m verified on Twitter. I’m actually eligible to run political ads on Facebook. I went through their verification process there a while back, which included uploading a copy of my driver’s license or passport.
But according to Facebook, they could not confirm my identity. They literally have a notification (shown above) that “The name on my ID doesn’t seem to match the name on your Facebook profile.”
Well, yeah, it doesn’t match exactly.
Meta Says William is Not Bill
My online presence uses “Bill Hartzer” as my name. However, all of my official IDs (driver’s license, passport, etc.) uses “William”.
According to Facebook (Meta), William does not equal Bill.
So, what am I going to do? What can I do? I am not going to change my official name to Bill on my driver’s license and passport. I’m not going to add it as a middle name, although I guess I could do that.
I am wondering if this is an automated process (the actual checking of a driver’s license), or if the actual verification goes through a ‘real human’, possibly NOT from the United States, where it is common that William = Bill, and that’s why it failed the verification.
Yes, technically speaking, my ID does not actually match, word for word, my Facebook profile name. They only gave me the option to change my Facebook Profile name to William, and that’s not something that I’m willing to do. My online presence is too big to do that at this point.