It’s official. The blue tick programme, professionally known as Meta’s Verification Program, has now launched in the US. The program will enable American users to purchase a blue checkmark on Facebook or Instagram for $US11.99 per month on the web, or $US14.99 in-app, accounting for respective App Store charges.
Other benefits the program offers include the following;
- A verification tick on Facebook or IG
- Dedicated account support from Meta’s team
- Proactive account protection from impersonation
- 100 Stars a month to allocate to other creators on Facebook
- Exclusive stickers for Facebook and Instagram Stories and Facebook Reels
One feature that was deliberated about but doesn’t appear on the list is the ability of increased reach for Meta approved profiles. Meta hasn’t given detail on why this element is being held back, but it seems that this feature has proven problematic in some respects. Users are only able to sign up to the program if they also have a Facebook profile.
Most critiques and queries over the program, similarly to Twitter’s program, worry that it will discredit the exclusivity of the original blue tick. Arguably such exclusivity is thing that makes Instagram so valuable, and that element is then further diluted with every person who signs up to the program.
Having said that, the program’s benefits are clear. Twitter’s bringing in an extra $2.4 million per month through Twitter Blue subscriptions thus far, and with the platform losing ad dollars, it definitely needs it. Meta, too, is losing out due to the broader economic downturn, which has forced it to cut staff and put various projects on the shelf as it realigns its priorities. Just this week, Meta announced that it will be eliminating another 10k roles, in addition to the 11k it culled last November, in order to reduce its ongoing obligations.
