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Social networks’ latest business model is charging for security

An image of the Meta logo.
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Social networks have struggled with spam, scams, impersonation, and account hijacking for years. And over the past week, two of them unveiled a new plan for dealing with it: passing the cost to users.

The first move came from Twitter, which made SMS-based two-factor authentication (2FA) a premium feature late last week. After March 20th, users will need to either switch to an app-based authentication system, pay $8 to $11 a month, or turn off the basic security feature. The decision is part of a larger attempt to push people onto subscription-based Twitter, and Musk also agreed with a tweet saying that it’s also an attempt to cut down on carriers charging Twitter for spam SMS messages.

Soon after, Meta announced its own security…

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