Paradoxically, the social networks’ biggest weakness, their credibility, could lead to their biggest economic strength if the subscription plan that Meta – as the conglomerate around Facebook has been called for some time – works in Australia and New Zealand.

I say this because the plan focuses on something exactly like what Elon Musk already said before he bought Twitter: pay to get an account verification that highlights the value of what you do and say in a trash-filled digital world, where every erotic move you make its body is called content, without a context that justifies it.

Now you will be able to pay for the verification of your Facebook and Instagram profiles, Meta announced

This experimental network fee goes like this: if you want to get a verification mark of your identity on your Facebook (gullible “oldies”) and Instagram (“young”) accounts, you will have to pay Mr. Zuckerberg $12 a month, which will increase to $15 if you want use that verification on your cell phone, which is exactly the most massive use their networks have in countries like Ecuador.

What do you get for that $144 or more likely $180 a year investment with Meta? In addition to the aforementioned identity verification, which threatens trolls and their shaming farms, the user will receive protection of his profile from possible identity theft, as well as increased visibility to reach a wider audience. Simple: whoever pays that subscription will be able to expose their promoted content while waiting for more users to come to it who pay for the lunch that has been boasted of being free until now, regardless of the costs and talents invested in it.

‘Much better than the other one’, Elon Musk named his dog Twitter CEO (hopefully in jest)

Sounds good. It sounds coherent. It has already been applied with some success by the platforms that offer us series and movies, which, on the other hand, have not yet taken the bold step of seeking financing by paying for advertising, which is already the case. financing For two decades, the model of Meta and others like Google, imitating and to a significant extent absorbing the business model of traditional media, from which they took a good part of, yes, the content.

If these initiatives want to make everyone visible and pay talent, let them do it and let us all live better.

Will it work? If we are guided by the addiction to the networks that rule the world, led by China’s TikTok, we should believe that users will accept this subscription experiment well. But the biggest enemy could once again be his main tool: technology, developed to the point where there is no effective way to block content if the person who wants to see it knows how to press the right buttons. Another paradox.

Optimistic as ever, I see the glass as half full and I think the best thing about these digital initiatives is that a world that seemed irretrievably free and chaotic is starting to come into order, which began with the death of the postal companies when the romantic epistolary paper was replaced by cold e- mail that we felt was free and on which no one dared to stick stamps that financed the work of yesterday’s postman.

If these initiatives want to make everyone visible and pay talent, let them do it and let us all live better. (OR)