- Instagram boss Adam Mosseri confirms that the site is introducing a “verified-only” feed.
- The new feed will only show posts from users who have paid for Meta’s Verified subscription.
- Social media giants like Meta and X are looking to get more users to pay for their platforms.
Instagram is introducing a “verified” feed that will only show posts from paying users.
The social media giant is testing the feature, which will show posts exclusively from users who have paid for Meta’s Verified subscription, among a limited number of users, as Meta continues to explore ways to get more users to pay for its platforms.
“We’re exploring this as a new control for people and a way for businesses and creators to get discovered,” said Instagram boss Adam Mosseri, in comments on his Instagram broadcast channel reported by the Verge.
The ability to post in the new verified channel will be available for all users who pay for Meta’s verified badge. The paid subscription, which was announced by Mark Zuckerberg in February, costs $12 on the web and $15 on the Instagram app.
At the time, Zuckerberg wrote that Instagram verified would increase “authenticity and security” by requiring paying users to confirm their identity in exchange for features such as increased visibility and “direct access” to customer support.
The subscription service, which saw Meta break with its longstanding practice of not charging users for its social media products, was initially trialed in Australia and New Zealand before being rolled out in the US a month later.
Meta is also reportedly considering plans to charge users in Europe for access to ad-free versions of Instagram and Facebook, as it grapples with new EU rules on personalized advertising.
Social media companies are increasingly moving away from the traditional model of free-but-with-ads that has allowed platforms such as Instagram and Facebook to become global behemoths.
X, formerly known as Twitter, introduced paid verification a few months before Meta, and has continued to experiment with directly charging users despite its disastrous launch.
X owner Elon Musk recently announced that it would begin charging users a $1 annual fee in order to cut down on the number of bots using the site.
Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider, made outside normal working hours.
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