Facebook, the once-booming social media site that is now just a wasteland of posts from people you met on holidays in 2012 or bad memes shared by an estranged aunt, wants you to start paying for the privilege of sharing your data with a tech giant. It’s called Meta Verified and it’ll give you…the bare minimum, actually.
The announcement was made in a Facebook post by CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
If that screenshot isn’t rendering properly, the post reads:
Good morning and new product announcement: 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. This new feature is about increasing authenticity and security across our services. Meta Verified starts at $11.99 / month on web or $14.99 / month on iOS. We’ll be rolling out in Australia and New Zealand this week and more countries soon.
Despite Meta Verified rolling out first in Australia and New Zealand, that pricing is USD. Meta Verified will cost Aussies $19.99 on web, $24.99 on iOS and Android, while New Zealanders will need to spend $NZ23.99 on web, $NZ29.99 on iOS and Android. $299.88 a year for something that already exists and is free (at the cost of your data, of course).
It isn’t just Facebook, however, the new service will also come to Instagram.
In a blog post, Meta attempted to justify the new Verified service.
“To help up-and-coming creators grow their presence and build community faster, today Mark Zuckerberg announced that we’ll begin testing a new offering called Meta Verified, a subscription bundle on Instagram and Facebook that includes a verified badge that authenticates your account with government ID, proactive account protection, access to account support, and increased visibility and reach,” the company wrote.
With Meta Verified, you’ll get a badge, “proactive account monitoring for impersonators who might target people with growing online audiences” – so, extra security features not available to non-paying members (so if you don’t pay and your account is impersonated you get…nothing?), access to a “real person” for common account issues, your account/posts will be forced down the throats of people just trying to see photos of their friends’ dogs (this is called “increased visibility and reach”) and “exclusive features to express yourself in unique ways” – nothing has been said just yet to confirm what this will look like.
Anyway, this awful new service will be available to Aussies and Kiwis this week, with the company hoping to “bring Meta Verified to the rest of the world soon”.
In things unrelated, here’s a step-by-step guide on how to deactivate or delete Facebook and do the same for Instagram.