SocraticGadfly: Gonna give Hucksterman a copy of your driver's license?

February 20, 2023

Gonna give Hucksterman a copy of your driver's license?

That's the price to pay for his version of Twitter Blue at Facebook, reportedly just around the corner.

According to Morning Brew, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is launching subscription service for Instagram and Facebook that will allow users to purchase blue badges that mark them as verified. Known as Meta Verified, the service will launch in Australia and New Zealand this week and hit other countries “soon.”

Similar to Twitter Blue, Meta Verified eschews the traditional concept of the blue checkmark as a gift bestowed to notable people like politicians and celebs. Now, it’s open to anyone who’s willing to pay. But there are differences between Twitter’s and Meta’s plans:

  • Meta’s is more expensive, costing $11.99 on the web and $14.99 on mobile. Twitter’s costs $8 and $11, respectively.
  • Meta will also require Meta Verified users to confirm their identity using a government-issued ID,
  • something Twitter doesn’t require.

What your $15 gets you with Meta Verified: You’ll get higher “visibility and reach” on the platforms and increased access to customer support, among other perks.

Zoom out: This is a big deal—not only for Meta, but for your experience on social media. By promising increased reach in exchange for $$$, Zuck is cementing social media’s evolution from a tool to keep up with your high school friends to a pay-to-play entertainment medium catering to professional content creators. As Bloomberg’s Sarah Frier noted, “Get your good friends a group chat if you haven’t already.”

And, yes, there will be people dumb enough to trust Huckersterman's security protections and do this.

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