Meta Announces Paid Subscriptions Offering Extra Verification, Promotion, Protection, Support

Long-time Slashdot reader destinyland writes: Meta announced a new $11.99-a-month subscription service on Sunday (or $14.99-a-month for Android and iOS). For your money you mainly get the privilege of authenticating your own account with a government ID, so that it can then display the official 'verified' badge. (Accounts must have a prior posting history, with account holders verified to be at least 18 years old.)

Meta promises they won't change already-verified Facebook and Instagram accounts — at least, not 'as we test and learn.' But they immediately follow that sentence by warning that in the longer-term they're 'evolving the meaning' of verification, aiming to making everyone want to subscribe. Meta calls this 'expanding access.'

Paying subscribers will also get: — Protection from account impersonation (at a higher level that's apparently not made available to non-paying members), including 'proactive account monitoring'. — 'Help when you need it with access to a real person for common account issues.' — Exclusive 'stickers' for Facebook and Instagram Stories and Facebook Reels, plus 100 free Facebook 'stars' each month 'so you can show your support for other creators.'

But most importantly, Meta is also promising to grant 'increased visibility and reach' to paying members, promising 'prominence' in parts of the service (including search, recommendations, and in comments). Although a footnote warns this may vary — depending on what you're trying to post about — and all content 'will be treated according to our existing guidelines for recommendations on Instagram or Facebook and our Content Guidelines.'

George Takei once calculated roughly 80% of your friends never see the things you post on Facebook. But now Facebook is deliberately evolving into a two-tiered system where some will always be relegated to less-likely-to-be-seen status, always outshined by wealthier friends with $144 a year to spend on upgrading their Facebook accounts.
The internet already has a two-tiered system for news, where the best news articles are only available to those with the funds to climb over multiple paywalls. But now even the lower tier of discourse — all that non-journalistic content floating around Facebook — will transform from a pool of burbling anger and misinformation into something worse. It's like Facebook's algorithm went from promoting just the most divisive content to promoting content from whoever most desires to foist their ideas onto other people. This may not end well.

Is it just me, or does this seem like a desperate grab for money? — They're monetizing Meta's inability to stop account impersonators. — Their announcement admits that 'access to account support' remains a top request of their creators. Yet paying members are apparently more likely to get it than non-paying members. Maybe that can be their new marketing slogan. 'Help when you need it — sold separately.' — This is happening. It becomes available for purchase this week on Instagram or Facebook in Australia and New Zealand.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.