Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, announced on Instagram Sunday that Meta is testing a subscription service that will allow Instagram and Facebook users to pay for a blue verification mark.
Meta Verified will start at $11.99 per month on the web or $14.99 per month on iOS, and the company is launching it in Australia and New Zealand this week and "more countries soon."
The service also comes with other benefits: additional protection from impersonating accounts and direct access to customer support.
To avoid fake accounts, customers who wish to earn a blue badge will need to provide government identification that matches their profile name and photo. Users must be over 18 years of age to be eligible.
"This new feature is about increasing reliability and security across our services," Zuckerberg wrote on Instagram.
Meta said, in a statement, that there will be no changes to accounts that have already been verified. Verification was previously for "trusted and prominent" users.
A Meta spokesperson said: "We're developing the meaning of the blue badge to focus on authenticity so we can extend verification access to more people. We'll show follower count in more places so people can distinguish which accounts are notable public figures among accounts. that share the same name."
Meta joins other platforms, such as Discord, Reddit and YouTube, who have their own subscription-based models.
Twitter relaunched its verification subscription service, Twitter Blue, in December, after the emergence of fake "verified" accounts forced it to pull the feature. The check mark options now have different colors to differentiate accounts: gold for businesses, gray for government agencies and other organizations, and blue for individuals, whether they're celebrities or not.
Twitter Blue costs $11 per month for iOS or Android subscribers, and is part of new owner Elon Musk's attempt to boost subscriptions business after buying the platform for $44 billion.