Facebook and Instagram users will soon have to pay to get verified on social media platforms as Meta follows in the footsteps of rival platform Twitter.
Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Meta, announced in a Facebook post on Sunday that the service would roll out for the first time in Australia and New Zealand later this week.
The company said it would cost $11.99 a month on the web or $14.99 on iOS and Android (or, in Australia, $19.99 on the web or $24.99 on iOS and Android).
Zuckerberg said that in addition to a blue badge, the service would offer “additional protection against phishing”, improved reach for verified users and direct access to customer support.
in a blog postMeta said it would rely on government identification documents to prove the identity of verified accounts, to avoid the embarrassment of accounts impersonating people and brands, as happened when Twitter initially launched its paid verification service.
Accounts must also have a posting history and users must be at least 18 years old.
The service would not be available to businesses at this stage, Meta said.
The increased visibility of posts from verified users “would depend on the size of a subscriber’s existing audience and the topic of their posts,” the company said. Those with smaller audiences could see a bigger impact.
The company said it would also offer “exclusive stickers” on Facebook and Instagram stories and Facebook Reels.
Meta cut 11,000 employees in November, the equivalent of 13% of its workforce, amid falling advertising revenue and the economic downturn. The company’s share price fell more than 70% in 2022 before a rebound, and in July it reported its first drop in revenue.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk responded to the news in a tweet saying it was “inevitable” for Meta to follow Twitter.
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Twitter restricts SMS two-factor authentication to paid accounts
Separately, Twitter announced Friday that it would provide SMS-based two-factor authentication only to users who subscribe to the US$8-a-month ($11.65) Twitter Blue service starting March 20.
The company currently offers free two-factor authentication via third-party apps and a security key, which are considered more secure than SMS-based systems. If non-subscriber accounts using SMS authentication don’t switch by the deadline, Twitter said it would disable two-factor authentication for that account.
The move has raised concerns that it could lead to widespread hacks into the accounts next month if they are not changed.
from twitter last transparency report before the Musk acquisition shows that, as of December 2021, while only 2.6% of active Twitter accounts use two-factor authentication, 74.4% of them use SMS as their authentication method.
musk has reclaimed Twitter was being “ripped off” out of $60 million a year from fake two-factor authentication messages. He separately supported a tweet that claimed the scams were being carried out by telecommunications companies that had set up bot accounts to run the two-factor authentication process to earn revenue from Twitter text messages.
