Facebook launches £10 Blue Tick as Zuckerberg copies Elon Musk

Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk Blue Tick Profile

Facebook and Instagram launch £10 paywall as Mark Zuckerberg mimics Elon Musk’s Twitter blue tick in dash to pay customers.

The feature, launched in the UK on Tuesday, will allow users of the social media services to pay £9.99 a month in exchange for a blue tick verification badge on their profile.

Meta Verified, the name of the new feature, gives users access to additional features such as two-factor authentication, which provides additional protection against hackers. Users will have to upload a copy of the ID issued by the government on the website.

Verified users can also access exclusive stickers on Facebook, Reels and Instagram Stories.

iPhone owners who pay for the new feature inside the Instagram or Facebook apps will have to shell out £11.99 per month, which is the result of a surcharge Apple applies to purchases through its App Store.

Twitter began a major overhaul of its blue tick system under Mr Musk’s ownership.

Previously awarded only to users deemed notable by Twitter staff, the blue ticks were put up for sale to anyone willing to pay $8 (£7) by order of the business billionaire.

Meta’s Verified feature was announced in March when the company announced it was creating 10,000 redundancies.

Those layoffs followed 11,000 job cuts announced last November as Mr. Zuckerberg’s company struggled with its metaverse vision.

Silicon Valley tech companies have collectively announced hundreds of thousands of redundancies over the past nine months as the end of pandemic-era restrictions weakened demand for consumer-facing tech products and services.

Instagram is also closing its London office, despite former deputy prime minister-head of global affairs Sir Nick Clegg making it a base of operations.

Instagram chief Adam Mosseri is expected to relocate back to Meta’s California headquarters as around 600 London-based Meta employees lose their jobs amid waves of corporate cost-cutting.

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