Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:FB) will start charging users for a blue tick stamp to show they are verified, following Twitter which introduced the feature last year.
The Facebook and Instagram owner suggested the new ‘Meta Verified’ feature will help protect users from impersonation, while also boosting their online presence.
Costing up to US$14.99 per month, or US$11.99 for those using the web, it will be rolled out to non-business accounts in Australia and New Zealand this week but won’t affect users already boasting a blue stamp on their profiles, Meta said in a blog post.
Twitter introduced a similar feature in November shortly after Elon Musk brought the company for US$44bn in a bid to tackle fake accounts and boost revenue streams.
The launch subsequently halted after further parody accounts were created by users pretending to be companies and celebrities, before being re-introduced again in December.
Meta said its own subscription service would require users to present government identification that matches the name on their account, which must also have posts on already.
Reports appeared last week that Meta was set to make a further round of job cuts in March, following 11,000 redundancies it made in November, as part of chief executive Mark Zuckerberg’s promise of a “year of efficiency”.
The tech giant had invested heavily during the pandemic as users flocked online, but now needs to cut back as economic fears grew, he said.