The social media Facebook and Instagram to get paid verification badge Blue Badge verification system is losing its original meaning on additional platforms. On Sunday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook and Instagram would begin selling paid verification for a monthly fee.
The new paid verification program comes in the wake of Twitter Blue’s subscription service last year, which allowed subscribers to get a blue verified badge next to their name.
Zuckerberg’s solution is officially called Meta Verified, and it will allow Facebook and Instagram users paying a monthly fee to get a blue checkmark next to their name.
How much money will have to be on Facebook and Instagram to get paid verification badge?
Meta Verified will cost $11.99 per month when purchased on the web or $14.99 per month when purchased through the company’s iOS app. In addition to the Blue Badge, Zuckerberg says that Meta Verified subscribers “will receive additional impersonation protection against accounts claiming to be you, and direct access to customer support.”
Twitter Blue’s launch in November 2022 was a disaster, with customers abusing the paid verification service to impersonate the accounts of various companies and celebrities. Twitter subsequently shut down the Blue service and relaunched it in December with stricter anti-impersonation measures. To subscribe to Meta Verified, users will need to verify their identity with a government ID. Of course, this raises privacy concerns. Would you like Facebook to have a copy of your government-issued identification?
Tech companies like Twitter and Facebook, which rely on advertising for most of their revenue, are understandably concerned about a weak economy and soft advertising market. It is no wonder that Meta is looking for alternative revenue models in times like these.
However, now that anyone can soon be paid to verify, the blue verified checkmark that once stood for notability and even authority or a voice of wisdom now merely signifies that one of the social network’s Special users is simply paying customers, and thus lose their original meaning – and with it, any social media street cred the trail once held.
Meta Verified will launch in Australia and New Zealand first, and expand to more countries later this year.