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"Good morning and new product announcement: this week we're starting to roll out Meta Verified -- a subscription service that lets you verify your account with

by markx2 4y ago

"Good morning and new product announcement: this week we're starting to roll out Meta Verified -- a subscription service that lets you verify your account with a government ID, get a blue badge, get extra impersonation protection against accounts claiming to be you, and get direct access to customer support. This new feature is about increasing authenticity and security across our services. Meta Verified starts at $11.99 / month on web or $14.99 / month on iOS. We'll be rolling out in Australia and New Zealand this week and more countries soon."

RobotToaster 4y ago
What makes this more ridiculous is that some of us have already been forced to verify with a government ID years ago, and they did that for free. (I think it's if you run a page with over a certain number of followers or something)
HeckFeck 4y ago
"Nothing sinister to see here, move along!" t. Nick Clegg
- swarnie 4y ago
  Nice to see the Tea Boy still getting work.
mrtqaf 4y ago
Hilarious. You pay for the fact that they can track you better, build real life dossiers and charge advertisers more. Sometime ago it was "if it's free, you are the product". Let's change that to "you are always the product".
- baby 4y ago
  People who say that usually don’t find facebook useful. Imagine saying that about google maps, gmail, spreadsheet, google docs, google meet, etc.
  - yazzku 4y ago
    People who say that don't want their identities prostituted. Whether or how useful it is is irrelevant. I don't want to have my identity prostituted based on the degree of how much I get in return.
    - baby 4y ago
      I’m not sure what that means by the way. It sounds like you’re mad that even others find facebook useful. I would get that checked out if I were you.
      - yazzku 4y ago
        Which part isn't clear?
- yazzku 4y ago
  Now the product literally pays for itself. It's like the wall in Mexico, Silicon Valley style.
jfk13 4y ago
$12 a month, or nearly $150 a year?! Wow... how much "customer support" do they expect the average person to need in the course of a year?
- jefftk 4y ago
  People who pay for customer support probably expect to consume more than average.
  - codq 4y ago
    I'd call them every day just to chat.
- mattm 4y ago
  This would be worth paying for one month just to get access to customer support if I needed it.
- spike021 4y ago
  I've known people with several thousand followers whose accounts get stolen ("hacked") and then they have no way to get Instagram to restore their access, so they're forced to make a new account. I guess it'd be helpful for people like them to have dedicated support lines.
  - bink 4y ago
    Wouldn't it be easier and cheaper just to enable MFA?
    - spike021 4y ago
      Unfortunately I think many people still aren't educated on MFA.
- shapefrog 4y ago
  Easier than the alternative: OnlyFans creator says she had sex with Facebook employees to get Instagram account back https://www.indy100.com/viral/only-fans-sex-facebook-employees-instagram https://www.indy100.com/viral/only-fans-sex-facebook-employe...
winternett 4y ago
Seems to be a lazy clone of Musk policy from Twitter... Isn't it crazy that now private companies (not even in conjunction with governments that issue IDs) are selling online legitimacy? These moves are driven by ignorant (outright) class-ism, and social media is quickly becoming a system of fraud that supports the wealthy while disabling people who don't pay. It's going to corrupt every aspect of life from news to entertainment if it hasn't already.... Trending topics used to be somewhat accurate because they were based on everyone's posts rather than just the posts of people who could afford to pay for verification. Because platforms got greedy and couldn't make platforms work with corporate sponsoring advertiser funding alone, they turn on users, the very people already working for free... This is not sustainable business. These platforms create schemes like crypto and NFT scams, info harvesting, unfair moderation, user account lockout extortion schemes, fake followers, payola promotion, ban extortion, industry plants, and many other criminal things to extort their user base. It's the modern day large-scale criminal enterprise to run a social media site.... The reason it's not obvious is because no one sees the code at work, they just see the end result of content creators. This is really short-sighted (stupid actually) tech leadership based on profit desperation. I hope people begin to defund these large social media entities, as they are no good for anyone's progress, except for the company CEOs and Investors perhaps... Ugh.

by markx2 4y ago

RobotToaster 4y ago

What makes this more ridiculous is that some of us have already been forced to verify with a government ID years ago, and they did that for free. (I think it's if you run a page with over a certain number of followers or something)

HeckFeck 4y ago

"Nothing sinister to see here, move along!" t. Nick Clegg

swarnie 4y ago
Nice to see the Tea Boy still getting work.

mrtqaf 4y ago

Hilarious. You pay for the fact that they can track you better, build real life dossiers and charge advertisers more. Sometime ago it was "if it's free, you are the product". Let's change that to "you are always the product".

baby 4y ago
People who say that usually don’t find facebook useful. Imagine saying that about google maps, gmail, spreadsheet, google docs, google meet, etc.
- yazzku 4y ago
  People who say that don't want their identities prostituted. Whether or how useful it is is irrelevant. I don't want to have my identity prostituted based on the degree of how much I get in return.
  - baby 4y ago
    I’m not sure what that means by the way. It sounds like you’re mad that even others find facebook useful. I would get that checked out if I were you.
    - yazzku 4y ago
      Which part isn't clear?
yazzku 4y ago
Now the product literally pays for itself. It's like the wall in Mexico, Silicon Valley style.

jfk13 4y ago

$12 a month, or nearly $150 a year?! Wow... how much "customer support" do they expect the average person to need in the course of a year?

jefftk 4y ago
People who pay for customer support probably expect to consume more than average.
- codq 4y ago
  I'd call them every day just to chat.
mattm 4y ago
This would be worth paying for one month just to get access to customer support if I needed it.
spike021 4y ago
I've known people with several thousand followers whose accounts get stolen ("hacked") and then they have no way to get Instagram to restore their access, so they're forced to make a new account. I guess it'd be helpful for people like them to have dedicated support lines.
- bink 4y ago
  Wouldn't it be easier and cheaper just to enable MFA?
  - spike021 4y ago
    Unfortunately I think many people still aren't educated on MFA.
shapefrog 4y ago
Easier than the alternative: OnlyFans creator says she had sex with Facebook employees to get Instagram account back https://www.indy100.com/viral/only-fans-sex-facebook-employees-instagram https://www.indy100.com/viral/only-fans-sex-facebook-employe...

winternett 4y ago

Seems to be a lazy clone of Musk policy from Twitter... Isn't it crazy that now private companies (not even in conjunction with governments that issue IDs) are selling online legitimacy? These moves are driven by ignorant (outright) class-ism, and social media is quickly becoming a system of fraud that supports the wealthy while disabling people who don't pay. It's going to corrupt every aspect of life from news to entertainment if it hasn't already.... Trending topics used to be somewhat accurate because they were based on everyone's posts rather than just the posts of people who could afford to pay for verification. Because platforms got greedy and couldn't make platforms work with corporate sponsoring advertiser funding alone, they turn on users, the very people already working for free... This is not sustainable business. These platforms create schemes like crypto and NFT scams, info harvesting, unfair moderation, user account lockout extortion schemes, fake followers, payola promotion, ban extortion, industry plants, and many other criminal things to extort their user base. It's the modern day large-scale criminal enterprise to run a social media site.... The reason it's not obvious is because no one sees the code at work, they just see the end result of content creators. This is really short-sighted (stupid actually) tech leadership based on profit desperation. I hope people begin to defund these large social media entities, as they are no good for anyone's progress, except for the company CEOs and Investors perhaps... Ugh.