Meta to launch ‘verified’ subscription service for Facebook, Instagram

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is set to launch a “verified” subscription service for users of the two popular social media platforms. 

Subscriptions will be $11.99 a month for users who subscribed through a web browser and $14.99 a month for users who subscribed through Apple Inc’s iOS system, Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post on Instagram.

Zuckerberg said the purpose of the “Meta Verified” initiative is to give users “protection against accounts impersonating them and direct access to customer service.”

Users who want to obtain the blue badge will have to provide a government ID that matches their profile name and pictures on their account. 

“This new feature is about increasing authenticity and security across our services,” Zuckerberg said in his channel post. 

Meta’s initiative follows rival social media platform Twitter’s own relaunch of its user verification system after Tesla CEO Elon Musk acquired the company last October. 

The latest version of Twitter Blue allows users to become verified with the platform’s blue check mark through a monthly subscription service, also giving Twitter Blue subscribers access to features such as an edit button and the ability to upload longer videos.

A Meta spokesperson told The Hill of comparisons to other platforms that the “truth is subscription-based models across the industry have seen some success so this shouldn’t be surprising.” 

Earlier this month, Meta restored former President Trump’s Instagram and Facebook accounts, reversing his suspensions from both platforms due to the events of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol. 

Trump’s official Facebook and Instagram accounts currently have 34 million followers and over 23 million followers, respectively. 

Zuckerberg noted that Meta Verified will roll out in Australia and New Zealand this week before launching in other countries in the near future.