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Instagram is now selling verification for $11.99 a month. This was announced in a recent broadcast from Mark Zuckerburg himself introducing the new product ‘Meta Verified’ that has been rolled out this week in Australia & New Zealand.
To quote Mark, he says its ‘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. This new feature is about increasing authenticity and security across our services. Meta Verified starts at $11.99 a month on web or $14.99 a month on iOS’
Now according to news outlet ‘the verge’ in order to sign up to become Meta Verified you’ll need to meet minimum activity requirements, be at least 18 years of age or older and submit a government ID that matches the name and photo you have on Facebook or Instagram.
Additionally, users who sign up for the service will get exclusive stickers for Stories & Reels, as well as free digital currency you can use to tip other creators on the platform.
Businesses cannot yet apply for verification and once you do go through the verification process you can’t change your name, username, birthday or profile photo without going through the verification process again.
I assume the reason behind different pricing is going to be due to the fact the app store charges 30% on transactions so this way if you buy from the web or the app store Meta receives about the same amount for the product which makes sense.
This update should lead to less impersonators due to the fact more notable people are verified and it would transfer the focus of the verification badge from something that is a status symbol to something that is there to verify authentic creators at risk of impersonation.
Despite this feature being taken from Twitter, it does seem to be a much better system than twitter built. You have to be 18, you have to submit government ID and once you apply you can’t change your username.
Meaning brands can’t be impersonated like they were on Twitter and you can’t create a verified profile in your name then change it to impersonate someone else whilst keeping the tick.
So there are good signs here, hopefully it improves. Let us know your thoughts