Facebook and Instagram will soon require their users to pay a monthly fee to become verified on these social media platforms, similar to Twitter's verification system, reported first by news.com.au.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared the information on Sunday in a Facebook post. The program will be launched in Australia and New Zealand later this week.
New Service
The new service will be $24.99 for iOS and Android users and $19.99 for web users per month. The service will provide further impersonation security, increased reach for authenticated users, direct access to customer support, and the blue badge signifying verification.
To prevent accounts from impersonating people, Meta stated that verified accounts would need to provide official identification documents to prove their identities.
"This new feature is about increasing authenticity and security across our services," Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post.
The company claims that subscribers will benefit from more visibility, additional protection against impersonation, direct access to customer service, and a badge indicating that their account has been verified with a government ID.
The service may undergo changes after a test phase and is primarily intended for content creators wishing to increase their presence on the platforms.
Only users who are at least 18 years old will be permitted to subscribe, and verified accounts on Facebook and Instagram will not be affected.
Zuckerberg's pricing plans for Meta Verified are still unknown, particularly in nations with users who cannot afford to pay $19.99 a month and where the US dollar has a significantly higher value than other currencies.
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Elon Musk Reacts
A Twitter post on Saturday, Feb. 19, claimed that Zuckerberg copied Musk's move to add a monthly subscription service for the blue verification badge on Twitter following his takeover of the social media company.
Musk responded to the tweet by saying that it is "inevitable."
Elon Musk's initial attempts to introduce a comparable service at Twitter last year were met with controversy due to the rise of fake accounts that alarmed advertisers and raised concerns about the site's sustainability. He had to temporarily halt the subscription service before resuming it in December 2022.
The overall goal of Meta's move is to increase security and authenticity across Facebook and Instagram, two of the most widely used social networking sites in the world.
The new subscription price has yet to be implemented, so it is unclear how users would respond to it or whether it will promote or discourage people from obtaining verification.
Inevitable
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 19, 2023
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