Mark Zuckerberg has borrowed a trick from Elon Musk and will start charging for ‘blue badge’ verifications, with the new subscription service rolling out across Instagram and Facebook in Australia this week.
Meta Verified is “a subscription service that lets you verify your account with a government ID, get a blue badge, get extra impersonation protection against accounts claiming to be you, and get direct access to customer support,” Zuckerberg announced, claiming its about “increasing authenticity and security across our services.”
Meta Verified starts at $11.99 a month (A$17.49) on web or $14.99 a month (A$21.80) on iOS.
The extra charge is due to Apple and Google’s substantial cut of any apps bought their various online stores.
Answering a critic who quite rightly claimed such authentication should be built into the product, Zuckerberg said: “We already provide protections and some support for everyone. But verifying government IDs and providing direct access to customer support for millions or billions of people costs a significant amount of money. Subscription fees will cover this and will also pace how many people sign up so we’ll be able to ensure quality as we scale.”
It’s also a way of building their paid subscriber base, as a Meta blog post more blatantly explains.
“Long term, we want to build a subscription offering that’s valuable to everyone, including creators, businesses and our community at large.
“As part of this vision, we are evolving the meaning of the verified badge so we can expand access to verification and more people can trust the accounts they interact with are authentic.”
Zuckerberg also introduced broadcast channels on Instagram with his own Meta channel.
Broadcast channels are a public “one-to-many” messaging tool that creators can use to broadcast more directly to their followers, giving them a tool to share text, video and photo updates.
