You probably noticed that some Facebook profiles have a certain blue icon next to the their profile name. What does it mean? Let’s find out!
A verified badge – which looks like this
So, not everyone can get verified, since these badges are for well-known, often searched Pages and profiles. This means that to get a verified badge, the Page or profile must have a certain relevancy on Facebook. You might be a public figure, celebrity or brand owner, but this won’t automatically grant you a badge, and we’ll tell you why in the paragraphs below.
Keep in mind that the verified badge won’t give you special treatments on the platform: it’s only a way of telling fake public figure\celebrity\influencer\brand profiles and the “real deal” profiles apart.
The requirements to apply for a verified badge
You can ask Facebook to make your account verified, but there are some requirements you should satisfy first. In fact, the platform looks at a number of factors when evaluating accounts to determine if they’re in the public interest and meet the verification criteria.
In addition to following Facebook’s terms of service, your account also needs to be:
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Authentic: your account must represent a real person, registered business or entity.
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Unique: meaning that the account must be the unique presence of the person or business it represents. Only one account per person or business may be verified, with exceptions for language-specific accounts. General interest accounts don’t get verified – for instance, Meme Pages.
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Complete: a “complete” account must be active and have an about section, profile photo and at least one post.
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Notable: as mentioned earlier, your account must represent a well-known, often searched person, brand or entity. FB reviews accounts that are featured in multiple news sources, besides, the platform doesn’t consider paid or promotional content as sources for review.
Make sure that your Page\account has all of the requirements before applying for a verified badge, because if you provide false or misleading information during the verification process, FB will remove your verified badge and may also take additional action to delete your account.
How to request a verified badge
You can submit a request by filling out a contact form, after you made sure that you meet all of the requirements for getting verified (check the paragraph above). Here’s what you’ll need to provide:
- if your account represents a person, you’ll need a copy of your official government-issued photo identification (passport, driver’s license, national identification card) to validate your request
- if your account represents an organization, you’ll need a copy of a phone or utility bill, a certificate of formation, articles of incorporation, or tax exemption documents. Also, it is better to include a few sentences explaining why the account should receive the verified badge, and relevant URLs that help illustrate the account’s notability.
You’ll receive a notification once FB is done reviewing your request. Don’t submit more than one request for your account, and if the request gets denied the first time, you can submit a new one after 30 days.
Can you buy a verified badge?
No, you can’t. Well, you could, but Facebook will eventually find out that there’s something sketchy going on with your verified status, and will remove your badge. That’s why purchasing a verified badge will only result in a waste of money.
Verified badge requirements for law enforcement, city governments, politicians and elected officials
There are some additional requirements for verified Pages for law enforcement agencies, city governments, politicians, and elected officials. Let’s see what these are.
Law enforcement:
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everyone who manages the Page must turn on two-factor authentication for their profiles (learn how to do so here)
City government:
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the Page name must include the word “Government” to avoid confusion with a physical location
Politician:
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Page name can include a government title or abbreviation, such as senator, representative, MP, mayor, etc.
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it can’t include “for Parliament,” “for [your Country],” etc.
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Page category must be set to Politician
Elected official:
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Page name must include a government title or abbreviation, such as senator, representative, MP, mayor, etc.
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Page category must be set to Government Official
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Page’s About section must clearly state that it’s a government Page