Facebook and Instagram are set to follow Twitter in offering users paid-for verification at a cost of US$11.99 (£9.96) a month on web and US$14.99 on iOS and Android.
Set be made available in Australia and New Zealand later this week, the move mirrors Twitter’s implementation of paid-for verification in November 2022 with the arrival of new owner Elon Musk.
Paid-for verification will not be made available to businesses at this stage, parent company Meta said – however the process will be open to any individual user that has a ‘posting history’ and is over 18 years old.
In a post, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said :”This week we’re starting to roll out Meta Verified — 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.
Subscribe to Marketing Beat for free
Sign up here to get the latest marketing news sent straight to your inbox each morning
“This new feature is about increasing authenticity and security across our services. Meta Verified starts at US$11.99 / month on web or US$14.99 / month on iOS. We’ll be rolling out in Australia and New Zealand this week and more countries soon.”
Meta also specified that the increased visibility that users could gain from the move would “depend on a subscriber’s existing audience size and the topic of their posts”, with indications that users with a smaller following may gain more from the purchase.
The news breaks as Facebook battles a recent scandal engulfing its advertising safeguards, with paid pro-Kremlin posts being viewed millions of times in Moldova before being taken down, helping to fuel anti-government protests.
