Meta unveils paid verification

Anabel Costa-Ferreira, Comment Editor, reviews Meta's new proposed plans

AMONEY-MAKING scheme that knows no bounds? Meta has recently announced that users will be able to pay for a verified blue tick, and this leads to the question how many users this new paid feature will attract. After adding a shopping hub and marketplace to their respective apps Instagram and Facebook, Zuckerberg follows Musk in questioning just how much of a price tag we place on our social presence.

subscription which has now complicated into a range of grey, gold and blue ticks in an attempt to differentiate individuals against business and government accounts.

Meta’s recent decision to follow suit will enable individuals to pay for verification, ing us to consider whether the current rollout stage is being utilised as a trial run of sorts. As Zuckerberg continues to stress this move will heighten security, this raises serious concerns about identity theft online and how it is being made increasingly easy, as made evi - tive monitoring for account impersonation". While historically the blue tick has been used to signify authenticity, is it perhaps contradictory that anyone can soon pay for this?

Often described as the ‘parent company’, the term Meta reaches back only to October 2021 when a rebranding of Facebook occurred, bringing in new partnerships with tech giants such as Microsoft. Familiar to most of us, the blue tick verification is a symbol of both authenticity and a notable figure or brand. It was first introduced by Twitter back in 2009, and other social media shortly followed, with YouTube enabling channels to submit requests once obtaining more than 100k subscribers. Since November 2022, Twitter began a premium blue

Ellie

ON 4th February 2023, an alleged Chinese spy balloon was shot down off the coast of South Carolina after traversing across the United States, including over key nuclear weapons bases in Montana and North Dakota. The US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, makes clear this is a “violation of international law” — so should we be concerned about the advancement of surveillance balloons? Spy balloons are not cutting-edge spyware; first used in the French revolutionary wars, they went on to be used extensively to monitor US and Soviet militaries during the Cold War. Rendered inferior by modern surveillance satellite technology, spy balloons entered hibernation, but a renaissance has been seen in recent years. New Scientist reports that the US Pentagon intends to spend $27 million on surveillance balloon projects in 2023, seven times more than previous years, and the UK’s Ministry of Defence has funded Project Aether, which aims to develop uncrewed surveillance balloon systems for global use. Additionally, the New York Times reports that Chinese military scientists are working to make spy balloons “more durable” and “harder to detect and track”.

however, it has not been designed for use by businesses. The new feature is set to cost a user a monthly fee of $11.99 for web and $14.99 for an iPhone user. This subscription bundle has already been made available in Australia and New Zealand, though we are yet to see a timeline set for other countries, lead - dent in many impersonating accounts starting to arise when Twitter moved to this. As well as the financial commitment, users will be required to upload an ID document and a profile that has visibility of their face. The Meta website even goes a step further as to ensure those who sign up will have "proac -

Meta continues to claim this shift is crucial to help creators "focus on building their communities", implying that there will inevitably be a positive impact for smaller users who will now become verified as a result of this change. From an outside perspective, the benefits of verification seem simple, providing increased visibility, increased clientele and subsequently increased business. However, like most social media restrictions there will be people who find their way around the rules and may use this tool to spread misinformation in a variety of forms from scams to online hate.

As we await these changes here in the UK, it begs the question where will this end? Is our growing inability to cope without a metaverse becoming our greatest weakness? And could we one-day end up paying to access even the application itself?