Tech giant Meta has begun rolling out its paid verification subscription called Meta Verified.
The service was this month made available in Kenya, with users being charged $8 (Ksh1,320) per month to have the blue verified badge placed against their Instagram and Facebook handles.
There are a number of requirements for a user to be eligible for the service, such as prior posting activity and being at least 18 years old. Children and business pages are not eligible.
A user must also have a public or private profile that is associated with their full government name and have a profile picture that includes their face. One is required to submit a selfie video and a photo or scan of their national ID to verify this information.
“At this time, Meta Verified subscriptions only support your real name on your profile. Once your profile has been verified, you can’t change the username, profile name, date of birth or picture on your profile without going through the Meta Verified verification process again,” reads the help page for the service.
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The number of followers is not a factor to be eligible for the service.
The verification process begins after paying the subscription fee through Google PlayStore. The subscription is automatically renewed every month until the user cancels it, which will also mean losing the blue badge.
Those with existing verified pages such as celebrities and public figures are still encouraged to apply for a Meta Verified subscription. It is unclear whether they will lose their badges.
“As we test and learn, there will be no immediate changes to accounts on Instagram that are already verified based on prior requirements,” reads the page.
It goes on to explain that the current meaning of the verified badge is that Meta has confirmed that that is the real Instagram or Facebook account of a specific person or brand.
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“A verified badge is not a symbol to show importance, authority or subject matter of expertise. We do not use the verified badge to endorse or recognise public figures or brands.”
Subscribers will have access to premium account benefits such as increased account protection. Other benefits include online support, increased visibility and reach, and exclusive features such as stickers.
Meta if following in Twitter’s footsteps (now X) in monetising verification through subscriptions. Twitter Blue which costs $8 was rolled out earlier this year. One is only required to have a display name, profile photo, be active in the past 30 days and have a confirmed phone number.
Source: The East African
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