Instagram and Facebook users will now be able to pay for BlueTick verification, parent company Meta has announced.
Meta Verified will cost $11.99 (£9.96) a month on the web or $14.99 for iPhone users.
It will be available in Australia and New Zealand this week.
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive, said the move would improve security and authenticity on social media apps.
The move comes after Twitter owner Elon Musk launched the premium Twitter Blue subscription in November 2022.
Meta’s paid subscription service is not yet available for businesses, but anyone can pay for authentication.
Badges – or “blue ticks” – have been used as authentication tools for high-profile accounts to indicate their authenticity.
Meta said in a post on its website that the subscription will give paying users a blue badge, increased visibility of their posts, protection from impersonators and easier access to customer service.
The company told JEE News that the change would not affect previously verified accounts, but noted that there would be increased visibility for some smaller users who become verified thanks to the payment feature.
Allowing paying users access to BlueTick has previously been problematic for other social media platforms.
Twitter’s paid-for-verification feature was halted last November after people started impersonating big brands and celebrities by paying for the badge.
Meta said Instagram and Facebook usernames must match a government-issued ID for verification, and users must have a profile photo that includes their face.
Other websites such as Reddit, YouTube and Discord similarly use a subscription-based model.
Meta has not yet specified when the feature will be rolled out to other countries, although Mr Zuckerberg said in a post that it would be “soon”.
In November, the company announced 11,000 job losses as a result of overinvestment during the Covid-19 pandemic.
At the time, Mr. Zuckerberg said he had predicted a surge in Meta’s growth that it had boosted during the pandemic, but that ultimately didn’t happen.
“Many predicted this would be a steady acceleration,” he wrote, “so did I, so I decided to increase my investment significantly.”
Instead, he said earnings fell well short of expectations due to “macroeconomic deterioration” and “increasing competition”.
“I did it wrong, and I take responsibility for it,” he said at the time.
