Meta has started rolling out its paid check service for Facebook and Instagram in the United States, weeks after it was announced by CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
The social media conglomerate began testing the paid verification option on Friday, and plans to gradually roll out the paid option to more US users over the next few weeks, according to a post made on Instagram by Zuckerberg.
The CEO announced the feature in February; months after Twitter CEO Elon Musk introduced the paid blue check designed to generate extra revenue for the microblogging app. Zuckerberg said the feature, which was tested in February in Australia and New Zealand, is about increasing authenticity and security across our services, and would have varying costs that starts at $11.99 per month on the web or $14.99 on iOS.
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But subscribers get extra protection from impersonation accounts and direct access to customer support, in addition to verification.
Twitter suffered an impersonation crisis in its first attempt to roll out the paid verification, forcing Musk to shut it down. The company relaunched the service in December after addressing the identity concern.
To avoid a similar case of impersonation, Meta said customers who want to get the blue badge would need to provide a government ID which matches their profile name and picture. Users must also be above 18 to be eligible for the new service.
Other platforms like Discord, Reddit and YouTube, also have their own subscription-based models.
Both Meta and Twitter share a similar challenge of declining ad revenue caused by different factors. Twitter saw mass exodus of advertisers after Musk purchased the platform in November, while Meta has lost significant percent of its ad revenue to Apple’s new privacy policy. The iPhonemaker had, last year, implemented a new policy that gives users the ability to disable App Tracking Transparency (ATT) — making it harder for app-makers and advertisers to track user behavior.
Twitter verification costs $11 a month for iOS and Android subscribers. Musk, who purchased Twitter at $44 billion, had in the beginning put the cost at $20 per month but reversed it following public opinion which asked that the cost be reduced.
