Facebook tackles fake ‘likes’ after bot controversy

Facebook is cracking down on potentially fake ‘likes’ on its site, amid critisicm that bots are ramping up prices for advertisers on the social network.


The social network announced in a post on its Facebook Security page that it is ramping up its automated efforts to remove likes that were generated via methods that violate its terms of service.
The firm also used the announcement to warn against companies selling ‘likes’.
On average, fewer than 1% of “likes” attributable to a given page should be removed under the new system, according to Facebook. But many analysts believe tackling this issue could boost the platform’s credibility among brands.
Facebook said in its post:
“A Like that doesn’t come from someone truly interested in connecting with a Page benefits no one,” the company said. “These improvements to our site integrity systems benefit both users and brands alike.
“Users will continue to connect to the Pages and Profiles they authentically want to subscribe to, and Pages will have a more accurate measurement of fan count and demographics.”
In a recent regulatory filing, Facebook estimated that just 1.5% of its accounts were “undesirable”, representing a small proportion of the site’s 955m registered users across the globe.
Read the official post here