Facebook Removed 2.2 Billion Fake Accounts This Year (fortune.com) 50
Facebook released its community standards enforcement report Thursday morning, offering a much more in-depth look at the inner workings of the company than previously seen. From a report: One of the most surprising insights came from Facebook's removal of fake accounts. The company said it removed 2.2 billion accounts in the first quarter of the 2019. That's a jump of nearly double compared to the fourth quarter of 2018 when 1.2 billion accounts were removed. That number seems astronomical, especially when considering that Facebook says it has 2.38 billion monthly active users overall. The reason that the social network can boast nearly as many removals as it has active users is that it typically finds and removes bogus accounts within minutes of them signing up. As a result, Facebook estimates that only 5% of its monthly active users are fake.
I'm surprised it's that low. (Score:5, Funny)
It feels like I report a billion of them every quarter myself.
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Glad to know you sent me friend requests from Facebook accounts with the same names and profile photos as my other Facebook friends and deceased former Facebook friends. Just stay where you are, and a black van will come to pick you up in a few minutes.
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My account was banned, simply because I refuse to submit to the SJW agenda.
If you were banned for not liking the new ghostbusters you would have told us. Not really a fan of SJWs but I have a feeling you know people wouldn't be sympathetic.
Don't tell me you actually believe that they only ban people for violations of the published TOS, community standards, and the law and don't engage in censorship for political, ideological, and economic/anticompetitive reasons.
Maybe FB simply labeled him "dangerous" like they recently did with Paul Joseph Watson and others, without giving any specific reason nor citing any violations of any law, "community standards", or the FB TOS. These days *you* as an average individual don't even need to have done or s
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Being on the receiving end of a hacked account is pretty frustrating. I made the mistake of logging in from someone elses computer. Few days later I got a random email at like 5am that I'd accepted a friend request from some random dude in Russia. Logged in to see what was up and got the verify your ID thing. Did that and boom, account disabled. All the info I had in there was actually (surprisingly) real, but I never managed to get the account back and have long since written it off.
Like most, facebook sup
Wonder if mine is still there (Score:4, Insightful)
Whatever, I made a fake account for the sole purpose of reading that strip. Only time I've been on FB.
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Does your fake account still work though?
What's a fake account? (Score:3)
An account created by someone with a different name?
How about not everyone wants to give its real name on facebook?
Re: What's a fake account? (Score:2)
Our dog gave his real name when I briefly wanted to check out Farmville.
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Still fake, even if you did it for privacy. Oh, did you think they gave a fuck about your privacy? No, that's still in direct violation of their rules. They just didn't bother enforcing it for a long time because there was more advertising revenue to be made from the hordes of trolls and bots while nobody realized they were all fake.
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I get it, but how to they know whether I put my real name or not? Sounds like the start if you want to estimate the number of fake accounts.
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Fake Account (Score:3)
I signed up for a fake account many MANY years ago, possibly a decade now. It used an obviously fake name containing a vulgarity. This account should be piss easy to spot using an automated system, yet last I checked it was still alive and active! I've not touched the thing in years, but considering I still get email notifications for that account, I'm assume it is still alive and kicking.
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You probably have to generate a pretty egregious amount of automated activity before they will notice or care. Don't be so sure they can't figure out who you really are just by who you talk to, either.
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Ha. My first fake FB & IG accounts lasted several weeks. :(
Re:How many (Score:4, Insightful)
Give it a rest Conser-victims. These were fake accounts.
Facebook didn't remove my fake accounts... (Score:1)
so who knows how many are left
A lot more exist (Score:2)
FB knows where most of these fake accounts are coming from, by country, region, even down to the actual network router that spews them out.
But they make revenue by letting them lie to us, so they only turn off some when they're about to be penalized by law.
They don't seem to be doing a very good job (Score:2)
My bots are happily Facebooking each other (Score:2)
All my bots - with names of imaginary people - are talking to each other on Facebook. As happily as emotionless bots can do it. This must be an attempt by Facebook to assure advertisers that real people dwell on Facebook.
What is 'fake accounts'? (Score:2)
I have multiple accounts, all in my real name, in order to participate in political debates. This is due to getting blocked when someone gets too uncomfortable with the facts and report it. In case you didn't know Facebook routinely labels any criticism of migration and Islam as hate speech, and posting that will get you blocked when some snowflake complains. Facebook doesn't care about the facts - any criticism is hate speech in their world.
Goodbye Facebook (Score:1)
Fake accounts = Dating scams (Score:2)
Dating scammers create fake accounts of women or men on Facebook then send out friend requests to potential victims en masse. I fell victim to one of these scammers. While I did not lose much money, I took steps to block these scammers. I changed my FB settings so that only mutual friends can send me friend requests. Some still get through via mutual friends, but there are telltale signs that are easy to spot and I am dilige