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After a successful trial in America, Facebook has started charging British users as much as £10 to send a message to a celebrity.
The service works out how much a message will cost depending on how popular the celebrity is. For instance, sending a message to Olympic diver Tom Daley – who has over 1.4m likes – will set you back £10.68, whereas messaging rapper Snoop Lion will cost you £10.08.
Other celebrities on Twitter who have not received quite as many ‘likes’ can be contacted for the standard rate of 71p. This is also how much users will be charged to contact other ‘ordinary’ people who are outside their circle of friends.
"The system of paying to message non-friends in their inbox is designed to prevent spam while acknowledging that sometimes you might want to hear from people outside your immediate social circle,” reads a statement from Facebook.
"We are testing a number of price points in the UK and other countries to establish the optimal fee that signals importance."
