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> Can someone please explain to me how this is in any way shape or form a privacy violation?

It’s an etiquette violation. Facebook being Facebook, of course this is something they messed up.

They should have sent an e-mail or verified Fb message saying “as an extra layer of security, we’d like to verify your identity in person—when is a good day in the next week when we may stop by?” (You lose the element of surprise, which gives a bad actor time to e.g. get an Airbnb and print a fake ID, but state-actor level threat models shouldn’t be assumed so early.) Maybe take over a cheap plush animal, or some other swag, as a gift for the user’s trouble.

On one hand, we want Facebook to fight fake news being spread by bots and illegal political ads. On the other hand, we get outraged when they do something as simple as verify someone’s ID. I’m no fan of Facebook, and their sociopathic culture certainly helped bring this to a head, but fundamentally, they aren’t doing anything wrong.

> but state-actor level threat models shouldn’t be assumed so early

Isn't this a response to _exactly_ that threat? Nation-state election interference activities have been detected around the world.

Totally agree. The article is a little unclear, it doesn't mention specifically this was an advertising post. I assume they tried to put $$ behind it. But even if not, you can't complain about FB allowing fake political speech and also complain about them verifying political speech origin.

> Facebook has a very stringent identity verification process for political ads

I don't know why many of you are twisting this and trying to make it seem that this was a verification for a political add, where as the article clearly says it was a personal political post made by the user, and not for any ad!

> Facebooks clearly states that if you want to run any kind of sponsored posts relating to political content you have to get verified.

I can see a problem with this methodology in that most things can be seen as "political", specifically regarding human rights, and in some oppressive communities revealing your identity while promoting human rights is, if not a death sentence, then at least an invitation to harassment from local authorities.

Without this process, someone else can post those ads in your name in order to get the locals to harass or kill you?

If it is too risky to put ads out under your own name, then facebook's ads are probably the correct place to fight for human rights.

If Facebook accounts for the overwhelming majority of the entire internet experience for some demographics, where am I supposed to fight for change?