Facebook has announced rolling out verified Pages and profiles – a move that is going to make it easier for users to follow the authentic accounts of celebrities and prominent people. Users can determine the ‘verified’ accounts with the blue checkmarks, placed next to their names on the Timeline, in search results, and across Facebook – similar to Twitter’s verified accounts icon.
The social networking giant will soon expand the verified accounts to a larger audience by including celebrities, journalists, popular brands, government officials as well as businesses. Facebook will proactively verify authentic Pages and profiles. Moreover, users can report fake accounts as well.
“Verified Pages belong to a small group of prominent public figures (celebrities, journalists, government officials, popular brands and businesses) with large audiences,” Facebook said in a post.
According to reports, Facebook has already rolled out the new feature to various celebrities such as Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Leonardo DiCaprio and Madonna. Profiles of CEO Mark Zuckerberg and sister Randi Zuckerberg have also received the blue checkmark.
Facebook’s new verified Pages and profiles is yet another example where the social network has borrowed features from other social networking site. Back in 2009, Twitter had initially introduced the concept of verified accounts and uses a similar blue icons with white checkmarks to show the verified accounts. Pinterest recently inducted the verified accounts format to its network.
In case of Facebook, the largest social networking network has been long grappling with the entrenched problem of celebrity/brands impersonations, which are quite confusing for users as well as makes it tough for the brands/businesses to reach out to their audience. With Facebook’s new feature, users see the accounts that are real and authentic. You can learn more about verified Pages and profiles from here.
What do you think of Facebook’s new Verified Pages and profiles feature? Let us know in the comments section below: