Meta to roll out paid ‘blue badge’ service for Facebook, Instagram customers

Meta Verified will let customers “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 stated.

San Francisco,UPDATED: Feb 19, 2023 23:04 IST

There could be no modifications to Facebook and Instagram accounts which might be already verified, Meta stated

By Agence France-Presse: Facebook and Instagram proprietor Meta will launch a paid subscription service beginning at $11.99 a month permitting customers to confirm their accounts, CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced Sunday, following an analogous transfer by Elon Musk at Twitter.

Meta Verified, which is able to roll out first in Australia and New Zealand this week, will let customers “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 stated.

“This new feature is about increasing authenticity and security across our services,” he wrote in a press release posted to his Facebook account.

Also Read | Mark Zuckerberg will increase his safety allowance by over Rs 33 crore after shedding 11,000 workers

There could be no modifications to accounts on Facebook and Instagram which might be already verified, the corporate stated, including that solely customers who’re over the age of 18 can be allowed to subscribe. The service is just not but accessible to companies.

Musk’s preliminary makes an attempt to launch an analogous service at rival social media community Twitter final yr backfired wildly with an embarrassing spate of pretend accounts that scared advertisers and forged doubt on the positioning’s future.

He was pressured to briefly droop the hassle earlier than relaunching it to a muted reception in December.

Meta’s announcement comes because the social media behemoth has grappled with monetary difficulties over the previous yr, asserting in November that it could lay off 11,000 workers or 13 % of its workers — the most important employee discount within the firm’s historical past.

Also Read | Meta to put off extra workers, provides low efficiency rankings to hundreds of workers

The layoffs are a part of a wave of redundancies introduced by Silicon Valley giants in latest months, because the as soon as unassailable sector faces financial gloom.

Meta can also be underneath stress for making an enormous gamble on the metaverse, the world of digital actuality that Zuckerberg believes would be the subsequent frontier on-line.

Investors final yr punished Meta, sending the corporate’s share value down by an astonishing two thirds over 12 months, however the inventory has recovered among the floor in 2023.

Zuckerberg has remained optimistic about Meta’s future.

Earlier this month, the corporate reported its first annual gross sales drop because it went public in 2012, however the fall was much less brutal than anticipated.

The firm additionally just lately introduced that the variety of day by day customers on Facebook hit two billion for the primary time.

Also Read | Meta delays setting workforce budgets, more likely to fireplace extra workers quickly

Published On:

Feb 19, 2023