Meta’s paid verification plan will push more users to the margins
WHO GETS TO BE ‘VERIFIED’ BY META
Last Sunday, Meta quietly debuted “Meta Verified,” a pilot plan that will offer Facebook and Instagram users a bundle of services alongside the coveted blue checkmark indicating that you are the “real” you.
The plan promises “proactive account monitoring” to protect you against impersonation (which Meta already prohibits), “increased visibility and reach” and “access to a real person” for standard customer service issues — a tacit admission that in its nearly 20 years as a company, Meta has never guaranteed real customer service to any of its billions of users. Wanna get verified? Just hand over a monthly fee of $11.99 on desktop and $14.99 on mobile and send in a copy of your state-issued ID that matches the name on your account.
This is a corporatized, unsurprising turn for the company, no doubt facilitated by Twitter’s bungled moves in the same direction. If it takes hold, it will create a two-tiered system, like a class hierarchy, that will likely push marginalized voices on the platforms further to their edges or knock them off altogether.
Back in 2015, when I was at Global Voices, I wrote about Preetha, a writer and feminist in southern India who became the target of trolls. Things escalated when Preetha had her account suspended on the grounds that she had violated Facebook’s “real name” policy, which requires account holders to use the name that they carry in real life.