Meta introduces paid subscription for Facebook, Instagram

Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, is set to launch a subscription service, which requires users of the two platforms to verify their accounts.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Sunday that users who are over the age of 18 will be allowed to pay subscription fees starting at $19.99 a month to get a blue badge.

“You verify your account with a government ID, get a blue badge, get extra impersonation protection against accounts claiming to be you/ get direct access to customer support,” Zuckerberg said.

“This new feature is about increasing authenticity and security across our services,” he wrote in a statement on his Facebook account.

Dubbed ‘Meta Verified,’ the new service will roll out first in Australia/New Zealand this week.

According to Meta, there will be no changes to accounts on Facebook and Instagram that are already verified. The service is not yet available to businesses.

Meta said they started the subscription idea following requests from different content creators.

This comes after Twitter, which was acquired by Elon Musk last year, launched an account verification feature that costs between $7 and $11 a month, depending on the gadget one is using.

However, the service was received with mixed reactions, leading to creation of fake accounts that scared advertisers. Musk then suspended the service momentarily but relaunched it in December.

Twitter Blue’s coveted check mark lets users promote their posts better, see much less advertising and have more writing freedom, with longer tweets.