Meta subscriber plan risks digital divide, say critics
Years after Facebook quietly removed a slogan that declared the site was "free and always will be", parent company Meta announced on Sunday a paid-for subscription service that has already been widely criticised.
Meta is following a well-trodden path to subscription services, with rivals from Reddit and Snapchat to Twitter and Discord already in the game.
But critics raised deep concerns with the way Meta had chosen to structure its new offering, which will cost $11.99 for web or $14.99 for mobile.
The firm said subscribers would get a verification badge, extra protection against impersonation, direct access to customer support and more visibility.
Online safety expert Kavya Pearlman was unimpressed with the idea of paying for protection, which she said would create a "digital caste system" of haves and have-nots.
"Safety and security features must NOT be up for sale," she tweeted, suggesting "dude bro CEOs" should charge the impersonators rather than squeezing money from customers who already pay with their personal data.
The Real Facebook Oversight Board, a lobby group highly critical of Meta, tweeted: "Now Facebook wants you to fund the harmful model that fuels its whole business." - Copying Musk - And there were wider concerns from Sinan Aral, a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who conducted a two-year experiment analysing the effects that account labelling had on online behaviour.
He said his study showed that "identity cues" like Twitter Blue or Meta Verified could lead to more "knee jerk" reactions, a divide between "in groups and out groups" and an intensified focus on personalities over content.
Financial analysts said the new models being tested by social media companies would not -- in the
Read more on tech.hindustantimes.com
