Meta announced that it will charge Facebook and Instagram users for their verified accounts. Its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, said that the service would roll out in Australia and New Zealand this week as a start.

In Australia, the service will cost $11.99 on the web version and $24.99 on iOS and Android. 

The blue tick service will also include "extra impersonation protection", which means improved reach and direct access to customer support. 

Meta revealed that the service is available for users over the age of 18 who have a posting history and will only rely on government ID documents to prove the user's identity. This decision was made to avoid the embarrassment of impersonating accounts for other people and brands. 

Additionally, Meta said that the service is not yet available to businesses. The visibility of the posts depends on the user's audience size and post topic. As such, users with smaller audiences will experience increased visibility.

To top it all off, subscribers will be offered "exclusive stickers" on Facebook and Instagram stories and reels.

A potential reason behind the decision?

Amid the economic downfall, and after the company's share price witnessed a sharp fall by more than 70% in 2022, Meta dismissed 11,000 staff members in November, thus eliminating the equivalent of 13% of its workforce.

Read more: Meta in hot water amid dropping stocks, as users flee, sales plunge

Prior to Meta's decision, Twitter announced that users of the app will now pay for two-factor authentication for their accounts. 

This is due to scammers from fake two-factor authentication requests, run by telecommunication companies who used bots to issue these requests to get revenue from the text messages from Twitter. Musk claimed that they were being "scammed" for $60 million a year by these requests. 

When asked about Meta's decision, Musk responded that it was "inevitable" that Meta would follow Twitter.

Read more: Twitter to charge users for SMS two-factor authentication