Users are not happy.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced that Facebook and Instagram will implement the one thing absolutely nobody was calling for paid-for verification on both platforms.
“This week, we’re starting to roll out Meta Verified – a subscription service that lets you verify your account with a government ID, get a blue badge, get extra impersonation protection against accounts claiming to be you, and get direct access to customer support,” Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook on Sunday.
“This new feature is about increasing authenticity and security across our services. Meta Verified starts at $11.99 / month on the web or $14.99 / month on iOS.”
He added that the service would be rolled out in Australia and New Zealand this week, with more countries to follow “soon.”
Facebook users reacted with broadly the same concerns as when Twitter launched the paid-for verification scheme (several times) last year.
“Call me crazy, but I don’t think I should have to pay you guys to take down the accounts impersonating me and scamming my followers,” one verified user wrote. “95% of the accounts I report for impersonation yield no results from your platform, and I know I’m not the only one.”
As with Twitter, people are unhappy with paying for protection against impersonation. The comments were also not keen on paying for access to customer support.
“Pro tip: read Mark’s post in a Joe Pesci voice to make it sound even more like a protection racket,” cartoonist Rob DenBleyker added.
Zuckerberg responded to one user who said that these features should be part of the core product, stressing that lower levels of protection will continue to be provided for free.
“We already provide protections and some support for everyone,” he wrote. “But verifying government IDs and providing direct access to customer support for millions or billions of people costs significant money. Subscription fees will cover this and pace how many people sign up so we can ensure quality as we scale.”
While the roll-out of paid verification on Facebook and Instagram may seem pointless or an attempt to make money from services that should or used to be free, Meta probably won’t encounter the same type of problems experienced on Twitter.
For one, Meta has not discussed de-verifying notable accounts that don’t want to subscribe to the service, making impersonation less of an issue. Additionally, Facebookers don’t use Facebook like Twitter users use Twitter. Though many creators use the platform, it is set up more for keeping up to date with friends, videos, and memes rather than Twitter’s public discourse (or cage-fight for clout, depending on your perspective) strategy, where the appeal of a little blue status badge has more obvious appeal.
Twitter’s paid-for service Twitter Blue has so far earned an estimated $27.8 million, noted by Quartz to be less than 3 percent of the interest Elon Musk owes on his loans each year.
