Facebook now verifying pages and profiles

Taking a leaf out of Twitter’s book, Facebook has started to roll out verified status to high-profile accounts of people and businesses to lend them authenticity. Verified pages will now sport a white check mark on a blue background, quite similar to what Twitter does for its verified accounts currently.

These verified pages will extend to prominent public figures like celebrities, journalists, government officials, popular brands and businesses that have a large number of fans. The blue check mark will show up for verified accounts in search results as well as elsewhere on Facebook.

Check marks will separate the original accounts from fan pages

The social networking giant will also be rolling this update out to profiles shortly. Prominent public figures that use a normal profile and have a large number of subscribers will also stand a chance to get the verified status from Facebook.

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In a Help Centre page, Facebook mentions that it is verifying pages to help users be sure that the page they’re liking belongs to the person the owner claims to be. It also attaches a word of caution to this exercise, “Keep in mind that not all authentic profiles and Pages are verified and that you can’t request to have your profile or Page verified.”

Facebook has not made the process it uses to verify accounts public right now. Twitter, the social networking website that originally introduced the concept of verified accounts, too does not reveal how it goes about verifying accounts. Pages of celebrities and performers like Selena Gomez, Metallica, Amitabh Bachchan and more have already received that blue check mark beside their names on their pages. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and sister Randi Zuckerberg’s profiles now sport check marks as well.

The move, though a little later than expected, is going to help Facebook separate fan pages from official accounts, making it simpler for users to know who they’re following. It’ll help Facebook fans keep up-to-date with information about public figures they care about. The social networking giant seems to be bridging the gap between fans and public figures now. If you thought you could only feel close to your favourite celebrities by following them on Twitter, think again. Facebook Pages are bound to give Twitter some tough competition.