According to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Meta Verified should improve the ‘security and authenticity’ of the platforms. It is not known when this function will be rolled out in the rest of the world, but in a blog post the company says it wants to do so soon. Incidentally, users with an iPhone pay about 14 euros per month – presumably because Apple cuts 30 percent of all transactions in the App Store.
Initially, Meta Verified will only be available to individual users and not to companies. In addition to the blue check mark, a paid account ensures that what the user posts is more visible in search results, comments and appears more often on the timeline of other users. In addition, premium users get access to a “real person” if they have problems with their account – something that is currently almost impossible for most users who have been hacked or experience other problems.
The New York Times writes that people who want to buy a blue check mark on both Facebook and Instagram must pay for it separately. In that case, an iPhone user will lose 28 euros per month. In the future, Meta wants to offer combined subscriptions. Users who already have a blue check mark can keep it for free for the time being.
Previously, Twitter introduced Twitter Blue under the leadership of Elon Musk: for 7.50 euros per month (10.30 for iPhone users) users receive a blue check mark. This went straight into the soup: people bought blue ticks on Twitter and then pretended to be big brands and famous people and let them talk the most absurd things. Nevertheless, Twitter continues to bet on this subscription. The company recently announced that it would only keep two-step verification accessible to paying users. Musk wants half of Twitter’s revenue to come from subscription fees in the long term.
To prevent people from posing as someone else for a fee, Meta says it asks premium users to identify themselves with proof of identity and a profile photo, among other things. Also, users must be of age to be eligible for a check. In addition, users must go through the verification process every time they change their profile name, username, birthday or profile picture.
Meta could also have chosen to solve the problems with fake accounts by having every account verified, instead of attaching a revenue model to this process. Wired calculated that from July 2018 to April 2022, Facebook earned at least 28 million euros in advertising money from accounts that were later removed for engaging in “coordinated inauthentic behavior.” These are accounts that deliberately pose as another person in order to influence the public debate. Facebook kept that money in its own pocket even after the accounts were deleted.
