A few months ago, Twitter launched a new version of its “Blue” service allowing certain subscribers to display a verification badge on their account. Even if it struggles to convince, for the moment, it will have had the merit of giving ideas to the competition. In particular Meta, which has decided to launch an account certification option on Facebook and Instagram.
This information comes at a time when Meta is going through areas of turbulence. The company had to make several redundancies for economic reasons. The most recent concerned 11,000 employees who had to leave their jobs in the week of March 12, 2023. It could therefore be that the new service is a way for Facebook’s parent company to bail out the coffers a little.
Meta Verified or the Twitter Blue according to Meta
Most organizations and personalities are desperate to stand out from the crowd on social media. This, in order to make themselves more credible in the eyes of their subscribers. For this, they have been demanding for months that the other platforms follow in the footsteps of Twitter and its certification badge.
Faced with demand, Meta, through the voice of its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has therefore decided to deploy Meta Verified on Instagram and Facebook. Like Twitter Blue, Meta Verified should allow users to add a blue checkmark to their Instagram and Facebook accounts. According to Zuckerberg, the new service will offer proactive identity theft protection and direct access to customer support.
After Australia and New Zealand last month, it’s the United States’ turn to benefit from this new service. However, to obtain these coveted verification badges, you will have to pay $11.99 per month for use on the web and $14.99 per month on mobile. It then appears that Meta Verified costs more than Twitter Blue, whose paid verification is set at “only” 8 dollars per month.
Also, this paid verification service undoubtedly reflects a change of policy within the Meta group. For good reason, the promises of free access to most of the services offered by Facebook and Instagram seem to be gradually becoming a thing of the past.
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Meta opens a waiting list and exposes the conditions of access to Meta Verified
It is important to specify that access to Meta Verified is conditional. For the moment, access to the service is not open to everyone. Only users who are at least 18 years old will be able to register and then pay the monthly subscription fee. Better, the verification process put in place by the firm requires the provision of a government-issued photo ID as well as two-factor authentication.
US Facebook and Instagram users who meet these criteria will now be able to join an open online waitlist. As for other countries like France, Meta has not stated when its new service will be available to its users there.
By the way, it should be noted that the verification badge is not the only element included in Meta Verified. The service also offers exclusive stickers on Facebook, Instagram Stories, and Facebook Reels. Also, the company intends to provide these Facebook subscribers with 100 stars per month to show their support for creators.
We can therefore only hope that Meta Verified will arouse real enthusiasm in the land of Uncle Sam, unlike the timid beginnings experienced by Twitter Blue.
Source: TechCrunch