Meta is launching its new Meta Verified program to users in
the US. Purchasing the subscription will make a user eligible to have access to
a blue checkmark and other perks on Facebook or Instagram. It costs $11.99 on
the web, and $14.99 in-app, per month.
Signing up for Meta Verified requires providing photo ID for authentication. Along with having access to the blue check, subscribers will be able to protect their accounts from impersonation, get exclusive stickers for Facebook and Instagram Stories and Facebook Reels, receive 100 Stars a month to allocate to creators on Facebook, and exclusive account support from Meta’s team.
To obtain the blue checkmark on Instagram or Facebook, subscribers
will be required to sign up to each platform separately. This means that in
case someone wants the checkmark for both Instagram and Facebook, they will be
paying Meta a total of $23.98 a month.
However, like in the case of Twitter, Meta is technically “selling”
these blue ticks, which means that anyone can purchase them. What this ultimately
indicates is that this verification process itself doesn’t guarantee
authenticity of accounts, as opposed to what having a blue tick essentially signifies.
Nevertheless, the method has proven to be successful for
Twitter, with a large number of users having signed up to Twitter Blue. Meta
seems to be driven by the same motive, especially because the company needs to
make up for the losses it has suffered in the recent past.
