The parent company of Facebook and Instagram, Meta among other features, has announced a new paid subscription for the platforms for which users can get their verified account by paying a certain amount.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the service will be termed “Meta Verified,” on a Sunday morning Facebook post to increase the authenticity and security across the services.
This service will cost a user $11.99 if subscribed via an Internet browser or $14.99 if purchased using the Meta iOS app.
With the news of social media companies seeking to cut costs and increase revenues, several companies like Telegram, Snapchat, and Twitter are launching new services with varying features.
Meta had a third consecutive quarterly decline in its revenue this month and laid off 13% of its workforce which is 11000 of its employees in November to become a learner and an efficient company.
The benefits of this subscribed service are:
1. Blue verification badge on profiles.
2. “Extra impersonation protection” for subscribers
3. Direct access to a live support agent
4. Increased reach and visibility of the profile.
Requirements to avail of the service are:
1. Government Id to match the profile name and photo.
2. The user should be at least 18 years old.
3. The user should have prior posting history.
Meta’s announcement followed Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s plan for Twitter blue service which also allows a user to pay for the check and that will prioritize their tweets from verified users in comments and searches. Musk promised to phase out the earlier verification system which requires users to be noticeable.
However, it resulted in a wave of imposter accounts forcing the company to pull down the verification feature plan temporarily.
Though it was relaunched a few weeks later wherein care is taken to prevent users from changing aspects of their profile or face losing their verification checks to stamp out impersonators. Twitter does not need a government id for verification.
While using the verified Meta the New subscribers will not be able to change the profile details like picture, name and username without going through the process of verified subscription and verified application again. There will be no changes to the existing verified accounts based on the previous verification requirements, including authenticity and notability.
Before going for a global launch, this new service will be introduced this week with a gradual test to learn what is more valuable.
“We’ll be rolling out in Australia and New Zealand this week,” Zuckerberg said, “and more countries soon.”