Facebook-parent Meta plans to start offering users verified blue badges and direct customer-support access for $11.99 a month, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Sunday. "This new feature is about increasing authenticity and security across our services," Zuckerberg wrote in posts on Facebook and Instagram, which Meta also owns. Users will have to submit a government ID to prove their identity to be eligible for the service, Meta Verified. However, users need to enroll separately for their Facebook and Instagram accounts, meaning the feature on both apps will cost $24 a month. The paid status will give subscribers "extra impersonation protection against accounts claiming to be you," Zuckerberg said.  The service, similar to programs at Twitter and Snap, became available in Australia and New Zealand last week and will be expanded to the United States within several weeks.

Three former Twitter executives are testifying Wednesday at the House Oversight Committee over Twitter's decision to temporarily suppress a New York Post story regarding Hunter Biden's laptop, in what's set to be the first high-profile hearing for the new Republican majority investigating President Joe Biden's administration and family.

Politicians and celebrities are said to be affected but the scale of the data breach is unverified.