Instagram and Facebook verification: the published criteria, plainly

Verification is the most misunderstood thing in this category, mostly because two different products now share a badge. Separating them is the first step in understanding whether you have anything to work on.

Two different badges

Meta Verified is a paid subscription. You confirm your identity with a government document, meet the minimum requirements, and pay monthly. There is no notability test and it is a purchase, not an achievement. Legacy verification is the older editorial review, applied to accounts of public interest, and it is the one people mean when they ask about being verified. It is not for sale, at any price, through any channel.

The four criteria

• Authentic: a real person, registered business or entity, with identity confirmable by document or official record.
• Unique: the singular presence for that person or business. One account per person or business, with language specific accounts as the narrow exception. Generic interest accounts and fan accounts do not qualify.
• Complete: public, with a bio, a profile photo and recent activity. Trivially satisfiable and still the reason a surprising number of applications fail.
• Notable: well known and highly searched. Judged largely on coverage in independent editorial sources, explicitly excluding paid or promotional content.

Notability is the whole test

The first three are checkboxes. The fourth is the decision, and it is assessed on whether independent publications have chosen to write about you. Follower count is not the criterion, which is why accounts with a million followers get rejected and accounts with fifteen thousand get approved. A surgeon quoted in three medical trade titles has a stronger notability case than a creator with a large audience and no coverage.

Coverage that you paid for or placed does not count toward notability, because the criterion explicitly excludes promotional content. This is worth reading twice before buying a package sold as a route to verification.

What actually closes the gap

Genuine independent coverage, built over months, in publications that cover your field rather than publications that cover anybody who pays. Consistent name, category and identity across every platform so the entity resolves cleanly. A confirmable legal or professional identity. A complete and active presence. And the discipline to wait until the record is real rather than applying on hope.

The thing to refuse

Anyone offering guaranteed verification for a fee is describing either fraud or a route that gets your account removed. There is no legitimate paid path to legacy verification, no partner programme, and no queue you can buy into. An adviser who is worth the money will tell you at the free stage that you do not qualify yet, and what the twelve month version of qualifying looks like.

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