Meta, the parent company of Facebook,  Instagram, and WhatsApp has announced that it will be launching a new verification service that will enable its customers to verify their social media accounts.

Meta Co-founder, Mark Zuckerberg, announced this on Sunday via a post on his Facebook account.

Meta said that its customers would be able to verify their accounts using government-verified identity cards.

The information stated that the new premium verification, Meta verified, will also include other services such as impersonation protection from fake accounts and direct access to customer support.

“This new feature is about increasing authenticity and security across our services. Meta Verified starts at $11.99 / month on the web or $14.99 / month on iOS. We’ll be rolling out in Australia and New Zealand this week and more countries soon,” the statement reads.

Features for paid verification subscriptions have become a trend since American billionaire, Elon Musk, made verification badges purchasable after his official Twitter takeover in October 2022.

The 51-year-old introduced the standard blue and gold tick verification badges. The new Twitter feat offers blue verification badges to individual accounts that pay for the Twitter subscription, while the gold verification badge is reserved specifically for official business accounts.