Facebook and Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg announced the platform will adopt and roll out a monthly verification subscription service.
The subscription service appears to mirror Twitter Blue which was spearheaded by Twitter owner Elon Musk in an effort to increase revenue following his acquisition of the platform.
Meta Verified is a subscription service that allows users to verify an account with a government ID and acquire a blue badge along with other impersonation protection measures, according to a Facebook post from Zuckerberg.
“This new feature is about increasing authenticity and security across our services,” wrote the Meta founder.
NEWS: Meta is launching paid verification/blue checks for Instagram and Facebook. pic.twitter.com/ybVsO5zY97
— Product Hunt 😸 (@ProductHunt) February 19, 2023
Meta verified will offer two subscription tiers: $11.99 per month for web users or $14.99 per month for iOS users. The service will be introduced to Australian and New Zealand users this week. The service will also reportedly offer direct access to customer support.
Subscription cost for Android and other users is unclear.
“We are evolving the meaning of the blue badge to focus on authenticity so we can expand verification access to more people,” a Meta spokesperson said, per CNN. “We will display follower count in more places so people can distinguish which accounts are notable public figures among accounts that share the same name.”
There will be no changes to currently verified accounts who are “authentic and notable,” the outlet reported.
Twitter Blue, which was originally introduced in November 2021, granted subscribers access to ad-free articles from legacy news sites including the Washington Post, Rolling Stone, and Insider among others. The subscription originally cost $2.99, though following Musk’s purchase of the company the price was raised to $8 for web users and $11 for iOS and Android users along with a change in features offered in order to combat what users said was an arbitrary verification system.
“Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bull—-,” said Musk, noting what appeared to be an arbitrary verification process. “Power to the people!”
Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit.
Power to the people! Blue for $8/month.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022
Access to subscription-based legacy media sites has been removed, though in their place a myriad of platform features have been introduced, including the ability to edit tweets.
Other features offered by Twitter Blue include bookmarks folders to categorize posts, custom app icons, NFT profile pictures, custom navigation, longer video upload, and longer posts among other features.
Twitter Blue features are immediately available upon purchase. However, checkmark badges appear on accounts following a short verification process.
The extent of Meta’s verification process mirroring Twitter Blue’s features is unclear.
Following a difficult 2022, Meta laid off roughly 11,000 staff and instituted a hiring freeze, Forbes reported.
