Meta Verified launched in India for Rs 699

Meta Verified is now available in India. Earlier in March, the CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, announced that the company is rolling out Meta Verified on Instagram and Facebook in the United States (U.S.).

This service was first available in Australia and New Zealand and allowed users to add the “blue tick mark” on their Instagram and Facebook accounts for a monthly price. This subscription service is now expanding to India. The same was announced via Zuckerberg’s Instagram Broadcasts channel. This service is currently available in India, Australia, New Zealand, the U.S., and the U.K. and will roll out soon in Brazil.

Meta’s CEO’s message included Canada too. However, it was noted that the service is available in the U.K., and the tech giant announced the testing service would begin in Canada last week only. In a conversation with TechCrunch, a spokesperson told the publication, “We are expanding the test to India starting today and will roll it out on Instagram and Facebook to everyone eligible there over the next couple weeks.”

Meta, which is the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, opened up the Meta Verified waitlist in March of this year. Zuckerberg shared in an Instagram post that Meta Verified is a subscription service that would let the user verify their account with a government ID. This verification would let the users have a blue tick on their profiles, which would get them extra impersonation protection against the accounts that claim to be them and would let the users avail themselves of direct access to customer support. Further, the users would have exclusive stickers on Facebook and Instagram Stories and reels, along with 100 stars per month to support creators. The applicants for the Meta Verified must be at least 18 years old to sign up for it.

According to the Meta, the subscription can be directly purchased on Instagram and Facebook. Users can avail the service for a monthly subscription of Rs. 699 on both iOS and Android. The company has asserted that the service will be expanded to the web and will be available for Rs. 599 a month.

What’s more, Zuckerberg has asserted that Meta will continue to honour the “legacy blue badge” for those who were already verified before the launch of Meta Verified. This approach is found to be different from what Twitter did. The microblogging website removed all the legacy badges in the hope that the users would pay a subscription to re-avail their blue tick badges.

In an announcement made by Meta, the tech company explained its thinking as follows: “These accounts passed through a set of criteria to confirm their authentic presence and may be more susceptible to impersonation than the average user. So, it’s important we maintain the verified badge to protect their accounts and the people that engage with them.”

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