Last year, Elon Musk's Twitter launched its Twitter Blue subscription service, a paid verification that offers users a blue check mark next to their name, as well as other perks, like being able to edit your tweets. Now Meta is following suit with something similar: CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced over the weekend that a new "Meta Verified" service will be coming to Facebook and Instagram, which will offer users the chance to pay to have their account vetted and given the OK, in exchange for which they'll receive a blue badge indicating the verification, reports USA Today.
"This new feature is about increasing authenticity and security across our services," Zuckerberg said in a Sunday Instagram post announcing the new product, adding that the service will begin rolling out this week in Australia and New Zealand, with other countries to follow. Users with a government ID to confirm their identity can pay $11.99 a month for the web, or $14.99 if they're using the app on iOS (Twitter doesn't require ID to be "verified"). In addition to the special badge, users will receive "direct access to customer support," as well as "extra impersonation protection."
A Meta spokesperson tells USA Today that eligible users must also be 18 and have a prior posting history. The move comes just days after Twitter announced its latest move: the elimination of text message-based two-factor authentication, used to protect accounts, for anyone who doesn't pay for its Twitter Blue subscription. Slate calls it a "bizarre decision" that, despite being "shrouded in the rhetoric of trying to improve users' security ... [suggests] that the policy change will have the opposite effect." Much more here. (More Meta stories.)
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