Meta Verified: What You Need to Know

On February 19th, 2023, Meta announced they would begin a payment verification service called Meta Verified. It is first being tested in Australia and New Zealand, which comes with a price tag of $11.99 (AUD 19.99, NZD 23.99 ) per month for web users and $14.99 (AUD 24.99, NZD 29.99) per month for iOS and Android users. In 2022, Elon Musk’s verification requirements for Twitter had some similarities. 

While Twitter has historically estimated only around 5% of its user are bots, the CIA and Musk have both stated that they believe around 80% of accounts on Twitter are artificially intelligent bots.

According to Statista, Meta’s Facebook has suffered tremendous losses caused by fake accounts and artificial intelligence, with 1.5 billion accounts being removed as of Q3 2022 alone. Meta estimates that around 4-5% of its users are fake accounts or bots. Once the paid verification is established, they will be able to better determine if that number is accurate, or if there are far more as Twitter is slowly figuring out for itself. 

The paid verification service requires users that want to send or receive money through Meta’s Instagram and Facebook to verify their identity.

Steps may include providing a legal name, date of birth, zip code or postal code, residential address, last 4 of social security number, picture of a government-issued photo ID, and answering questions only the identified person would know the answers to.

Once a user’s account is verified, no further changes to the name, username, date of birth, or photo of the identification can be changed without going through the process again. Outright businesses will not be eligible for the verification, only users with specific names- which leaves the question of whether actual or fake businesses are able to still send and receive money. 

Benefits of Paid Meta Verification:

1. Paid verification will deter some fraudulent activities
2. Paid verification will limit the number of fake accounts
3. Verified accounts will have a better chance to compete in selling products or services

The positive side of Meta’s steps for paid verification is that the verification will deter some fraudulent activities such as the foreign and domestic use of artificial intelligence (AI) that has been notoriously used by scammers to extract payments from users. This is also what prompted Elon Musk to initiate a verification process for Twitter, as the use of AI has been an ever-growing cybersecurity threat nationally and internationally, especially for users on the platform. 

Another benefit is that paid verification will limit the number of fake accounts, whether they be made by actual people or artificially through software. This will help bring confidence back to investors and platform users. By having fewer fake accounts or impersonators, the impressions have a heavier weight, and the data collected is considered less tainted. After members are verified, their visibility is expected to be increased; and with the payment, there will be funds for improving customer support. 

A third benefit is that verified accounts will have a better chance to compete in selling products or services. With the increase in AI, there have been many artificially generated accounts producing fake products and fraudulent services, driving out business from actual people trying to make a living for themselves. 

Downside to paid verification:

1. Legitimate small businesses will have yet another business cost that will eventually increase prices for those goods and services
2. The verification process will require someone to be 18 years of age or older
3. Meta Verified is available to verify profiles only, not Pages
4. Purchasing a Meta Verified subscription on Facebook will not transfer over to your Instagram account.

A negative consequence is that legitimate small businesses will have yet another business cost that will eventually increase prices for those goods and services. Also, given the customer support of such platforms in the past, they have a negative reputation to work against, especially for pages that have been shadowbanned, accounts deactivated for speaking their opinions that are contrary to the platforms, and account hacks that get little-to-no resolve. 

Another negative point is that the verification process will require someone to be 18 years of age or older, meaning a person younger than 18 has now fewer chances of making a living for themselves or growing a small business at a younger age- further thwarting entrepreneurial pursuits for Gen Z. The verification also acts somewhat as a overreach by demanding the verified to have a government-issued ID, and it allows for Meta to proactively monitor each account yet Meta does not specifically declare what that monitoring entails. Meta publicly states that they have the legal authority to provide acquired data to governments requesting information or having access to user accounts, and as of 2022, there were over 412,000 requests while Meta produced information and access to over 76% of those accounts.

Nevertheless, with more security measures taken, this could significantly help people who have a fear of sending or receiving funds on Meta’s platforms, i.e. Instagram and Facebook, meaning in the long run this could help support more business transactions and the confidence behind it. With the significant losses in 2022 to the tune of $13.72 billion, caused by Meta’s metaverse expansion, the paid verification may boost profits with more business transactions creating a profit for the company in the long term. 

More on Meta and International Cybersecurity here

Currently, How to Get Verified on Meta is an easy process:

Start the verification process

1. From your main profile, click your profile picture or  in the top right of Facebook.
2. Click Settings & privacy, then click Settings.
3. Click Accounts Center, then click Meta Verified.
4. If Meta Verified is available for your account, you’ll see “Meta Verified available” under your name and profile photo. Select the profile you want to begin a subscription for.
5. View the list of benefits available, then click Continue.
6. Confirm your payment and click Pay now.
7. Select your payment method and click Subscribe.
8. To complete the verification process, you’ll need to use the Facebook app. You must have the Facebook app installed on your mobile device and be logged into your Facebook profile to complete verification.

Check your verification status

1. From your main profile, click your profile picture or  in the top right of Facebook.
2. Click Settings & privacy, then click Settings.
3. Click Accounts Center, then click Meta Verified.
4. Click the profile you’d like to check the verification status of.

Join the Waitlist for Met Verification – Instagram Verification:

Click Here to Join the waitlist: https://about.meta.com/technologies/meta-verified