Zuck plays hardball with Musk and billions of users
It seems like Mark Zuckerberg either wants to raise the stakes or raise a glass to Elon Musk this week. We certainly know that Meta is looking to claw back clout from the headlines at the very least: this week, Instagram introduced WhatsApp-style broadcast channels with Zuckerberg opening a channel for Meta-related ephemera. This morning, he’s taken to that very channel to announce Meta Verified, a program that looks to unify verification on all the company’s platforms while doing what Twitter has decided to do: charge money for the privilege.
Whereas currently, one would need to apply individually to Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp to have a business entity verified on each platform, Meta Verified would charge individual customers $12 per month on the web or $15 per month on Android and iOS to let individuals verify their presence on Facebook and Instagram by submitting their government ID (the extra charge on mobile is likely meant to help recoup revenue sharing costs from Apple and Google). A Verified status would also grant users a blue badge as well as active monitoring against identity fraud and immediate customer support.
“This new feature is about increasing authenticity and security across our services,” Zuckerberg wrote in his channel post.
The current verification schemes for business on Meta’s platforms remain in place and so do issued statuses. Meta Verified is offered on top of those programs as a unified program strictly for individuals.
Meta Verified debuts this week in Australia ($20 on the web, $25 on mobile) and New Zealand ($24 on the web, $30 on mobile). More markets will be announced soon.
Eligibility is limited to those aged 18 or older who meet minimum activity requirements. The identification they submit must match their Facebook profile name and photo as well as all associated vital information.
Signees will get exclusive perks including access to unique stickers for Stories and Reels and 100 Stars free every month to tip digital creators on Facebook (via The Verge). Social media consultant Matt Navarra reports from Instagram’s help pages that Verified provides users priority placement in comment sections and recommendation slots on the Explore page and in Instagram Reels.
Prior to Tesla owner Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, blue checkmarks identified profiles on the site of celebrities, officials, and other notable people and were given out for free. Post-Musk, blue checkmarks now identify an account that was either verified under the old scheme or a subscriber to the $8 per month Twitter Blue service ($11 per month on mobile platforms). There are separate schemes that let business apply for gold checkmarks and government organizations or officials to receive gray checkmarks.
For a short period, however, Blue-verified users were able to impersonate brands by changing their handles and display names, then wreak havoc with prank messages that confused a wide audience and have caused major swings in stock prices for those brands.
We’ll be on the watch as to how Meta enforces the rules for Verified and if (no, when) Musk responds. Until then, it’s yet another thing consumers can pay for in Big Tech’s monetization arms race that may or may not be contributing to a souring macroeconomic picture.
