A developer has reverse-engineered Instagram’s source code to find what appears to be clear signs that Meta is preparing to offer paid Instagram verification – with the same code also found in the Facebook app …
Background
Ad revenues from free apps have taken a significant hit from Apple’s App Tracking Transparency requirement to ask user permission for tracking. Tracking is what makes it possible to serve personalized ads, based on browsing history, which are worth substantially more than generic ads.
Instagram owner Meta said last year that it expected the ad hit from ATT to be as much as $10B. That’s left app developers searching for alternative revenue streams.
One of Elon Musk’s ideas was, of course, to put Twitter’s blue checkmarks up for sale. He did so soon after his acquisition of the company, as part of an $8/month Twitter Blue subscription.
The results were not pretty, with numerous trolls, pranksters, and scammers using their blue checkmarks to impersonate major brands and public figures. The company was forced to withdraw the subscription while Musk came up with the idea of actually verifying verified accounts.
Paid Instagram verification
TechCrunch reports that Meta appears to be planning to sell verification for both Instagram and Facebook.
Recently discovered code snippets reference explicitly refer to a “paid blue badge” and a new subscription product, a developer has discovered. The same reference also appears in the latest build of the Facebook app, indicating paid verification could be offered across Meta’s platforms if the product continued to be developed.
The code was spotted by Alessandro Paluzzi, who has a solid track record.
Paluzzi shared with TechCrunch screenshots in the app’s code that included lines referencing “IG_NME_PAID_BLUE_BADGE_IDV” and “FB_NME_PAID_BLUE_BADGE_IDV.”
Meta seems to have learned from the Twitter Blue debacle, as it appears to be planning to verify identities: IDV is commonly used shorthand for ID Verification. Hopefully, this will avoid a Twitter-style meltdown, as the company doesn’t need any more missteps.
Instagram has already had to admit to two mistakes so far this year, and we’re only just into month two.
First, the company confirmed reports that it had abandoned the shopping feature it introduced way back in 2018. The idea was that brands could post arty photos of their products, and tapping on it would take you to a link to buy it.
Second, the company’s CEO admitted that the platform was pushing too many videos to users, many of whom complained that they used the app to see photos, and already had YouTube Shorts and TikTok if they wanted to view short videos.
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