The rumors were true: Facebook’s parent company Meta is preparing to launch a Twitter Blue-like subscription service called Meta Verified. On Sunday morning, Mark Zuckerberg took to his newly launched broadcast channel to share the news.

He said the subscription service will give users a blue badge, additional impersonation protection, and direct access to customer service.

“This feature is about enhancing the authenticity and security of our services.”

Zuckerberg said

He added that Meta will test the subscription first in Australia and New Zealand before rolling it out to other countries. Meta Verified will cost $15 per month when users subscribe through the company’s iOS and Android apps. On the web, where app store commissions don’t apply, the service will cost US$12 per month. The subscription will cover Instagram and Facebook accounts, Engadget wrote on the subject.

12 bucks a month to be verified on Facebook… I wonder if people will keep that same Twitter Blue outrage energy 😅 pic.twitter.com/ZPJsIHBerO

— Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD) February 19, 2023

Users will have to meet certain eligibility requirements before they can sign up for Meta Verified. Specifically, the company told Engadget that the subscription will only be available to users aged 18 or older.

Meta will also require potential subscribers to share a government-issued ID that matches the name and profile picture on their Facebook or Instagram account. Once verified, you can’t change your account name, username, date of birth or photo without going through the verification process again. Accounts that were verified prior to today’s announcement due to their notoriety will remain verified.

The news was announced in a company’s tweet, saying:

“Remember when we began testing a new feature called Safety Mode? After months of feedback from beta users, we’re excited to expand this to some of you in several new English-speaking markets to gain more feedback and insights.”

https://twitter.com/TwitterSafety/status/1493669586666930181

In September last year, Twitter introduced its Safety Mode feature which was presented as a helping tool which is temporarily blocking accounts that are using abusive and hateful speech.

Now, the company is working on adding new options which are supposed to make users’ experience on social media not only more pleasant but also safer.

The new system will mark accounts which are using inappropriate language and harmful comments and it will block them for a week. At that point half of the platform’s users from the UK, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland will be provided with an access to this option.

Also, one more option will be ready for use – Proactive Safety Mode. Its aim is to recognize potentially abusive replies and give people an opportunity to enable the mode.

SXiQ works with leading Australian enterprises, as well as the Australian operations of global Fortune 2000 companies, to successfully migrate and modernize their cloud infrastructure and applications across multiple industries. The company works with clients to monitor and optimize their spending on cloud resources, helping enterprises unlock greater value from their cloud investment to realize cost savings of 20 percent or more.

SXiQ will enhance IBM Consulting’s capabilities in Australia and New Zealand to modernize applications and technology infrastructure in the cloud. This is the 20th acquisition – and tenth consulting acquisition – since Arvind Krishna became IBM’s CEO.

SXiQ will join IBM Consulting’s fast-growing Hybrid Cloud Services business, helping IBM capitalize on a rapidly growing cloud professional services market. SXiQ’s team of technology consultants brings expertise transforming and migrating enterprise workloads on cloud platforms including Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.

John Hanna, Managing Director, SXiQ, said:

“Our digital transformation experience and track record of client delivery on leading cloud platforms will send a strong signal affirming our and IBM’s commitment to clients’ successful journey to the cloud. Our clients can now take advantage of IBM’s broad capabilities around ERP systems, Data & Analytics, Machine Learning & AI, deep platform partnerships, and global delivery capabilities, allowing us to broaden the transformational capabilities we can bring to our customers, ensuring they can make their own digital transformation further and deeper.”

Financial details were not disclosed.

“It is not a coding error. It is incompetence. The developer who developed this is incompetent… This is basic stuff,” said the man who spotted the booking system problem.

“The source code of the website, flagged a few concerning features, including someone’s name, and an NHI number hard coded into the website, for what reason? I don’t know,” he said. “We could see everyone’s details. We skimmed through, we didn’t look at names, but their names, dates of birth, NHI numbers for those who entered them, contact details, where they were getting their vaccinations, what time they were vaccinated.”

It appeared that Canterbury DHB had used a modified internal system to create the booking system. “You can tell by the source code, this was never meant to be a public facing website. This was only for people to use on like iPads, in doctors’ surgeries, it was not supposed to be for this.“