The IT Nerd

In another move that I am sure is meant to keep the US Government from beating it senseless metaphorically speaking, Meta who owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads is announcing that they are banning Russian State Media from their platforms:

Facebook owner Meta said on Monday it was banning RT, Rossiya Segodnya and other Russian state media networks, alleging the outlets used deceptive tactics to carry out influence operations while evading detection on the social media company’s platforms.

The ban marks a sharp escalation by the world’s biggest social media company against Russian state media after it spent years taking more limited steps like blocking the outlets from running ads and reducing the reach of their posts.

“After careful consideration, we expanded our ongoing enforcement against Russian state media outlets. Rossiya Segodnya, RT and other related entities are now banned from our apps globally for foreign interference activity,” the company said in a written statement.

Enforcement of the ban would roll out over the coming days, it said. In addition to Facebook, Meta’s apps include Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads.

I am guessing that much like this case of Instagram putting limits on teens activity on the platform, Meta must have seen the writing on the wall and decided to do this to avoid something worse being forced upon it. The Russians are understandably not happy about this. And I suspect that the rhetoric between Russia and the US is about to escalate massively because of this.

I am not sure what they’re smoking at Meta. Perhaps it’s the weed that Twitter is now peddling. But they’ve decided to offer their own subscription based verification system. The announcement was made by Mark Zuckerberg himself on Facebook. Here’s the details:

• This is coming to Instagram and Facebook
• Australia and New Zealand will get this first
• You get verify your account with a government ID
• You get a blue badge
• You get extra impersonation protection against accounts claiming to be you
• You get direct access to customer support.
• Meta Verified starts at $11.99 / month on web or $14.99 / month on iOS

All of this sounds so much more thought out versus the half baked verification system that Twitter came up with. Though they must have missed the part that Twitter has had almost zero traction with Twitter Blue. Thus I question how much success Meta will have with this. As always, Meta is free to prove me wrong on that front. And seeing as they’re still a public company, we’ll find out in the next few quarters how well this scheme does or doesn’t work.