The Meta honcho announced a new verification program that the social media company will be rolling out soon. He writes, "Good morning and new product announcement: this week we're starting to roll out Meta Verified -- a subscription service that lets you verify your account with a government ID, get a blue badge, get extra impersonation protection against accounts claiming to be you, and get direct access to customer support."

MZ adds, "This new feature is about increasing authenticity and security across our services. Meta Verified starts at $11.99 / month on web or $14.99 / month on iOS. We'll be rolling out in Australia and New Zealand this week and more countries soon."

For those worried that Facebook/Instagram would fall into the same problem Twitter has suffered since the launch of Twitter Blue -- i.e., fake accounts and impersonators -- Meta says it's already considered that ... and will take active steps to combat imposters and jokesters.

For starters, they're saying they're going to make people submit government IDs to help match them up to their own profile before handing out any blue checkmarks to the normies. Meta also says they'll be actively monitoring for BS accounts that might spring up.

As for all the public figures who were verified before ... Mark and co. say they're going to leave them be with their already-established verified status -- unlike Elon, who says he'll phase out legacy blue checks (regardless of who they are) and make people pay $8.