Facebook and Twitter Are Charging for Added Security.

TIME MAGAZINE [By Mariah Espada w/ Peter Tran] – Social media platforms have battled bots, spam, hacks and impersonation for many years. Now, Meta and Twitter have come up with a new approach to tackling the problem: passing the cost of better security on to users.

Meta announced on Feb. 19 it would be launching Meta Verified, a subscription service that offers additional verification, security and customer service features, for the price of $11.99 a month on the web and $14.99 on iOS. It is currently being tested in Australia and New Zealand. The process: users can sign up for the service, provide their government ID for screening and then if approved, they will get a blue badge and Meta will proactively monitor against fake accounts and provide direct customer support.

“This new feature is about increasing authenticity and security across our services,” wrote Meta CEO Mark Zuckerbeg in an announcement on his Facebook page. It’s quite similar to Elon Musk’s Twitter Blue service that recently relaunched, which offers perks like a blue verified check mark (a once free feature reserved for the notable and famous) and the ability to edit your tweets, for $11 a month. It’s not just a blue check mark that users are paying for, but also a security feature that has become standard for various online accounts: from late March, non-Blue users will no longer have access to Twitter’s two-factor authentication via text message system. (If you don’t disable the feature, you may be logged out of your account after March 20).

These services seem to be targeting content creators, with a growing following, who may want the extra security. But the average user is still vulnerable to hacking and impersonation. Nearly one-fifth of U.S. teens and adults experienced their social media accounts getting hacked within the first three months of 2022, according to a survey conducted by Deloitte. Half of the respondents said they were concerned about online security breaches.

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