How can I access Public Page posts without a business verification?

Question

for years I was using Facebook API to fetch public Page post data using Page Public Content Access for my scientific school project, but because of new regulations, now it requires Business verification.

This confuses me, because the data is not used for any business purposes, this data is not sensitive(since it's available for general public) and yet I need to verify it for business use?

Maybe I am missing something and I don't need the permission for PPCA and should use something else?

The project used to visit a public public FB page and save some of the data from posts to my database.That's it.

Answer 1

Yes, Facebook has closed the "free-content-flow". You must keep in mind that even though the content that you are requesting from the GRAPH API is publicly available to anyone on the internet, BUT that does not mean that Facebook has to "open" their API for anyone to collect data from them so easily.

After I submitted my app for review (my review was fully loaded with a screencast and had all the criteria as required by Facebook) - this is what I got back from them. (See attachment)

FACEBOOK'S RESPONSE:

Not Approved: Page Public Content Access App Verification feedback We were unable to verify a valid use case for the requested permission(s) from the information you provided. Please ensure your use case is valid and that you are correctly utilizing the permission(s) in the app.

After review, your app does not require Page Public Content Access for its intended function demonstrated in the screencast. (But it does)

The only valid use case for Page Public Content Access is to read and analyze insights from other pages where you are not the admin.

Your app's intended functionality can be supported by the Manage_Pages or Read_Insights permissions. For more details on how best to incorporate these permissions, please visit our Permissions Reference.

Thank you.