Facebook rolls out new security features for US political candidate Pages

These latest security measures are launching as a pilot program for Facebook users connected to US political campaigns and party committees.

• Facebook will launch a pilot program to give US political candidates and staff, as well as staff members and representatives from federal and state political party committees, more tools to secure their Pages.
• Security options will include two-factor authorization and a monitoring process to block potential hacking threats.
• Campaign marketers and staff will have new security tools to protect Pages from potential hackers.

As part of Facebook’s continued efforts to protect its platform from malicious behavior and bad actors aiming to influence US elections, the company is expanding its security options for Pages that belong to US political candidates running for state and federal office, as well as staff and representatives of political party committees. On Monday, Facebook launched a pilot program offering two-factor authentication and monitoring for potential hacks to admins that manage US political candidate pages.

The announcement didn’t include details on how the monitoring process for a potential hack will work but did say that the program will help Facebook detect — and participants report — any unusual activity targeting a Page.

“If we discover an attack against one campaign official, we can review and protect other accounts that are enrolled in our program and affiliated with that same campaign,” writes Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, “As we detect abuse, we will continue to share relevant information with law enforcement and other companies so we can maximize our effectiveness.”

As we near the November midterm elections, many US political candidates and their staffs are beefing up their Facebook marketing efforts. Facebook’s added security measures follow the company’s most recent crackdown on bad actors when it removed 32 Pages across its platform and Instagram for coordinated malicious behavior. Earlier this year, Facebook released new political ad policies, enforcing a new rule that anyone running a political or issue ad had to be verified on the platform.

This latest update gives the candidates and their staff an added level of security around their Pages — which often is the most used vehicle for US candidates to broadcast their messages on the platform, both with organic posts and promoted content.

To access the tools, the Page admin will first have to enroll for the two-factor authentication campaign security platform. Once enrolled, admins will be able to add other people from their campaign or political committee.