Will all social networks offer paid accounts to obtain certification? After Twitter, Instagram seems to be looking into the subject by developing its own offer. According to information collected by TechCrunch, engineer Alessandro Paluzzi shared a screenshot of the lines of code referring to a “paid blue badge”: “IG_NME_PAID_BLUE_BADGE_IDV” and “FB_NME_PAID_BLUE_BADGE_IDV”, meaning that Facebook could also offer this option.
According to the engineer, “IDV” could mean “identity verification”. The latter also reported to TechCrunch that a new subscription offer was visible in the code. For the moment, the Meta group did not wish to comment on this information.
However, the black market for paid certification has a large following. In August 2022, ProPublica revealed a real business of selling fake certification badges, forcing the Meta group to remove verification from 300 accounts.
For his part, and despite a bad reception, Elon Musk continues to want to make even more money thanks to certified accounts by focusing on business accounts. It was Matt Navarra, a social media specialist, who shared the email sent by Twitter to professional accounts, offering to obtain the coveted badge (the golden one) for the modest sum of 1,000 dollars per month, in addition to 50 dollars per month for affiliate accounts. A real small jackpot for the social network of the little blue bird. According to The Information, the announced price could nevertheless change.
In France, the rest of the users will also be able to obtain the certification by paying 9.60 euros per month. After taking over the social network, Elon Musk announced the deletion of already certified accounts in the coming months, to impose this new paid system.
To seduce users, the billionaire nevertheless announced that the social network would share advertising revenue only with creators who subscribed to Twitter Blue.