FILE - In this April 18, 2017, file photo, conference workers speak in front of a demo booth at Facebook's annual F8 developer conference, in San Jose, Calif. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify before Congress next week as authorities investigate allegations that the political data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica inappropriately accessed data on millions of Facebook users to influence elections. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File) (Noah Berger)
Facebook is rolling out a new requirement to people who manage pages with a large following in the US: They'll soon have to confirm their locations.
The new authentication requirement is designed to help the company root out scammers and Russian agents from abusing Facebook pages to influence the public. "Our goal is to prevent organizations and individuals from creating accounts that mislead people about who they are or what they're doing," the company said in a post on Friday.
The new requirement forces the Facebook page admins to turn on location tracking. They'll also have secure their accounts with two-factor authentication, which adds an extra layer of login protection to prevent hacking. "If a Page manager authorizes and then turns off location, they might be required to turn location services on again to post to the Page," a Facebook spokeswoman told PCMag.
The company isn't elaborating on what constitutes a page with a large following, but for good reason. "We aren't sharing exact numbers (of the followers needed) as bad actors may use it to game the system," the spokeswoman added.
More From PCmag
The tech giant originally announced the new authentication measure back in April amid ongoing concerns that foreign governments will try to exploit Facebook to interfere in upcoming US elections. In February, federal investigators indicted 13 Russian nationals for conspiring to buy political ads on social media to influence the American public during the 2016 presidential race. In response, Facebook has been requiring political ad buyers to first verify their identities and locations with the company.
Facebook said the new authentication process for pages, which starts rolling out today, "should only take a few minutes to complete." However, page admins who refuse to comply will no longer be able to post on their pages.
"On enforcement, each notice to the Page manager will have a date in it that they need to authorize by," the Facebook spokeswoman said. "If a Page manager doesn't get authorized by the enforcement date in their notice, they will be unable to post."
The company is also tweaking the way pages with a large US audience appear over the platform. They'll now carry a new section that'll show the public in what countries the page is being managed from. "We think knowing the country where a Page is managed can help people better assess the content of that Page. For example, it might be helpful to know if a Page advocating for a political cause pertaining to a certain area is managed from that country or not," Facebook told PCMag.
In the coming weeks, the Facebook-owned Instagram will also introduce similar features that can show people more details about accounts with large audiences.
This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.
Get a daily look at what’s developing in science and technology throughout the world.