Following Twitter’s introduction of charges for ‘verified’ checkmarks, Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta has announced that it will also be introducing a ‘verified’ charge of $11.99.  

Cybersecurity experts at VPNOverview.com have analysed Google Trends data over the weekend. The data shows that search interest for the terms ‘deactivate instagram’ and ‘deactivate facebook’ has risen sharply after Meta announced a new subscription service would be rolled out.

Search interest for ‘deactivate instagram’:

Search interest for ‘deactivate facebook’:

The data shows that search interest for ‘deactivate instagram’ has increased by 2,400% and the search interest for ‘deactivate facebook’ had increase of 1,566%.

Meta has said that the subscription would allow for priority commenting and faster customer service as well as a mark on your profile saying that you are ‘Meta verified’.

The monetisation of social media has become more common since the introduction of GDPR and other privacy laws which make it harder for companies like Meta to sell your data without consent.

A spokesperson for VPNOverview.com had this to say: “Social media has allowed people to stay in touch with each other even if they’re in different countries. However, before the advent of GDPR, companies could and did sell your personal data to advertisers.

“Across the various platforms, some are supported by non-personalised ads alongside a premium plan and others are now introducing subscriptions to remain profitable for investors.

“With more companies adopting strategies like this, it will be interesting to see in the future if the social media landscape will change and become fragmented as opposed to the centralised model we have now.”