META testing paid verification for Instagram and Facebook

$META is testing paid verification for Instagram and Facebook for $11.99 per month on web and $14.99 per month on mobile.

This new feature is about increasing authenticity and security across our services,” Zuckerberg wrote in the post.

Twitter launched its updated Twitter Blue subscription service in December after the company’s new owner Elon Musk pulled and delayed the initial launch.

Businesses are not currently eligible to apply for Meta Verified, and the company said users will not be able to change their profile name, username, date of birth, or profile photo without going through the application process again.

In November, the company announced 11,000 job losses as a result of over-investment during the Covid-19 pandemic.

At the time, Mr Zuckerberg said he had predicted an increase in Meta's growth based on the rise it had over the pandemic, but that ultimately did not happen.

"Many people predicted this would be a permanent acceleration," he wrote, "I did too, so I made the decision to significantly increase our investments."

Instead he said "macroeconomic downturn" and "increased competition" caused revenue to be much lower than expected.

"I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that," he said at the time.