Meta to offer verified accounts on Facebook and Instagram
![Facebook and Instagram apps on screen.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/dTzqzYY733swm9XDUHjutF-415-80.jpg)
Facebook-parent Meta plans to start offering users verified blue badges and direct customer-support access for $11.99 a month, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Sunday.
"This new feature is about increasing authenticity and security across our services," Zuckerberg wrote in posts on Facebook and Instagram, which Meta also owns. Users will have to submit a government ID to prove their identity to be eligible for the service, Meta Verified. However, users need to enroll separately for their Facebook and Instagram accounts, meaning the feature on both apps will cost $24 a month. The paid status will give subscribers "extra impersonation protection against accounts claiming to be you," Zuckerberg said.
The service, similar to programs at Twitter and Snap, became available in Australia and New Zealand last week and will be expanded to the United States within several weeks.
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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.
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