Like Twitter Blue, you will now have to pay monthly for Meta services to offer you identity verification.
At the origin of social networks like Facebook, the idea of being able to find online friends from the real world whose identity we know. You still have to make sure that the person on the other side of the screen is who you think and not an impostor who has stolen an identity. This is all the more critical for influencers, brands and celebrities who daily risk having their identity stolen online by imitators.
Meta Verified: pay to protect your identity
After Twitter and its Twitter Blue subscription, it’s Meta’s turn to launch a subscription to charge for identity verification. The announcement was made directly by Mark Zuckerberg and the subscription has a very clear name: Meta Verified. It immediately lets you understand that this subscription will be valid for all the giant’s services: Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram.
For $11.99 per month (or $14.99 per month on an Apple product due to the commission imposed by Apple), users will be entitled to a verification of their identity papers to obtain the famous blue badge of verification. Unlike Twitter Blue which offers a set of functions, here Mark Zuckerberg’s subscription focuses on the question of identity. The subscription thus provides enhanced protection against identity theft and privileged access to customer service.
Deployment is currently limited to Australia and New Zealand.
Mark Zuckerberg tries to justify the subscription
We can also note that a difference in approach between Twitter and Meta comes from verification with identity papers. Elon Musk considers for Twitter that the payment of the subscription is enough to automatically validate the honesty of a person. A little more conscientious, Mark Zuckerberg seems to consider that identity papers and manual verification remain important today.
On the other hand, the founder of Facebook and Meta was challenged by Facebook users on the idea of transforming the minimum service of a social network into a paid subscription. The billionaire explains it in the comments.
We already provide protections and some assistance to everyone. But verifying government IDs and providing direct access to customer support for millions or billions of people costs a lot of money. Subscription fees will help cover these costs and track the number of people who sign up, allowing us to ensure quality as we grow.
Internet users, however, did not fail to point out the irony in the fact of asking to pay for quality assistance and identity verification.
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