The owner of Facebook and Instagram has begun rolling out a paid verification service in the UK.
Meta’s subscription service can be compared to “Twitter Blue” which gives users of the social media platform a blue tick from £9.99 a month.
Facebook and Instagram users can sign up for Meta Verified.
The service requires users to be at least 18 years old.
They must also submit an official ID to qualify.
Those who use the Meta service will get a verified badge which the tech giant says will give them more protection from impersonation.
Meta says this is in part because it will monitor subscribed accounts to check for people who might create fake versions.
The verified service will be rolled out in the UK over the next few weeks and will be available for £9.99 for the web service and £11.99 for use on iOS and Android phones.
People who have registered interest in Meta Verified will receive a notification when it becomes available to them.
Meta offers the following breakdown of what users will receive:
- A verified badge which confirms “you’re the real you and that your account has been authenticated with a government ID”
- More protection from impersonation with “proactive account monitoring for impersonators who might target people with growing online audiences”
- Access to a real person for support in relation to common account issues
- Exclusive features to “express yourself in unique ways”
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The verified service has been available in the US since March, and in Australia and New Zealand since February.
When Meta first began testing its verified service in Australia and New Zealand, the social media platform said it had been launched to “help up-and-coming creators grow their presence and build community faster”.
When testing began in the US, Meta said it was “removing increased reach as a subscription service for now, as we gather more feedback and further evolve Meta Verified”.
Meta’s move follows Twitter chief executive Elon Musk’s decision to implement a subscription service for his app in November 2022.
It was controversial at the time as it replaced an approach where blue ticks were used to verify that high-profile accounts belonged to the people they claimed to be.