I’m curious why Meta would benefit. Meta seems wholly unnecessary, the verification can be done at the OS level, completely in the hands of Apple/Alphabet and maybe Microsoft.

If anything, Meta’s utility would seem to shrink if the OS handles proof of being a real person.

Regulatory capture through a higher barrier to entry. Any social media platform that wants to compete with Meta's portfolio will now also need to have an age-verification system in place (which is guaranteed to introduce higher costs). Meta can likely afford to eat the costs here as a tradeoff for the higher impact on smaller players.

It also gives them more information on users as a bonus. Further, verification with a real ID is also a quite effective barrier against excessive bots.

Meta's entire business model lives on ad deals that are not on the frontend. They are in the data business and this campaign is to get access to more data without an option to opt out. Who takes the data doesn't really matter.

Meta get to impose verified ID on everyone and link it to their advertisers, AND kill competing networks.

Liability and they probably want whatever blob of bits they use to identify you from the OS.

because upstart competitors cant afford the verification process / lobbying efforts next instagram wont be bought out, it cant even begin to exist