Yahoo Finance Facebook and Instagram changes to cost you $25 a month
Aussies will soon need to pay to be verified on Facebook and Instagram.
Major changes are coming to Facebook and Instagram for Aussie users, after the social media platforms’ parent company, Meta, announced verifications would move to a subscription model.
Basically, Aussies who want to have the blue check, to verify they are legitimate, will need to pay a monthly fee of $19.99 on desktop or $24.99 for iOS and Android.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the move would help smaller creators “grow their presence and build community faster”.
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Meta verified is 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, Meta said.
Zuckerberg announced the new feature on his own Instagram account on another new feature called Instagram channels. This allows creators to send messages to all their followers and can be used for announcements.
This follows a similar move from Twitter, which saw the platform charge around $11 a month to get a verification checkmark.
Zuckerberg's announcement was met with a lot of criticism, especially around the cost to be verified, with many comparing it to the cost of Twitter’s blue check.
“Anyone who pays for a blue check mark probably don’t [sic] need one,” one Twitter user said.
“Once again the hellish world of subscription is creeping up on everything, especially because these brilliant folks keep mismanaging gazillions of dollars,” another said.
“It will help them clean some of the fake accounts from FB [Facebook] and Instagram but it's highly unlikely people will pay for this. Don't count on me to pay FB,” another user said.
The new verification service will be rolled out in Australia and New Zealand this week, with Zuckerberg saying he hopes it will be made available worldwide soon after.
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