Does anyone suspect this is little more than a ploy for them add government issued IDs to their trove of user data?

I'm guessing this is a way for Mark to sell a new premium tier of data to advertisers. He can charge advertisers for access to a "blue checkmark" tier of user data for an extra fee.

The idea that they are asking users to now pay FB for the privilege of giving them even more personal data is so twisted that I think only Zuckerberg could come up with it.