Facebook’s parent firm, Meta, has started to roll out a paid verification service in the UK.
To be eligible, subscribers must be at least 18 years old and provide valid government ID.
In the US, Australia, as well as New Zealand, the feature is already accessible.
Those who expressed interest in Meta Verified will be notified when it becomes available. In the following weeks, it will be made available to more people in the UK.
Those who Meta has accepted will receive a verified badge, which the tech company claims will provide additional protection against impersonation, partly because it will monitor their accounts to look for impersonators.
According to the statement, verified users will also have “access to a real person” if they encounter any account problems.
The change was made after Mr Musk launched the premium Twitter Blue subscription in November 2022.
The service, which replaced the earlier approach in which blue ticks were used to confirm that well-known accounts belonged to the individuals they claimed to, caused controversy at the time.
On April 20, Mr Musk deleted what was later called “legacy” verification ticks from account holders, leaving only those who had paid for Twitter Blue and verified their phone number eligible for the “verified” blue badge.
High-profile users like Hillary Clinton lost their verification badges due to the blue tick removal process, and subscribers could modify their own usernames to mimic them.
Later, Twitter gave out the blue ticks to various celebrities, countries, and organizations.
Users can still apply for a verified badge if they are “public figure or a celebrity, or brand and meet the account and eligibility requirements,” according to the help pages for the platforms and Meta Verified subscription.
Facebook and Instagram had previously been free to use in all situations since they became well-known. Still, their choice to incorporate a paid-for verification mechanism represents a change in approach.
Most of Meta’s revenue, which supports the services, has come from advertising.
While both are still free to use, introducing a paid tier that gives it more prominence represents an effort to find alternative methods to monetize the platforms.
