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Facebook culls three billion fake profiles
Facebook has published its latest "enforcement report", which details how many posts and accounts it took action on between October 2018 and March 2019.
During that six-month period, Facebook removed more than three billion fake accounts - more than ever before. More than seven million "hate speech" posts were removed, also a record high. For the first time, Facebook also reported how many deleted posts were appealed, and how many were put back online after review.
In a call with reporters on Thursday, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg hit back against numerous calls to break up Facebook, arguing its size made it possible to defend against the network's problems. "I don't think that the remedy of breaking up the company is going to address [the problem]," he said. "The success of the company has allowed us to fund these efforts at a massive level. I think the amount of our budget that goes toward our safety systems... I believe is greater than Twitter's whole revenue this year."
Facebook said the rise in the number of deleted fake accounts was because "bad actors" were using automated methods to create large numbers of them. But it said it spotted and deleted a majority of them within minutes, before they had any opportunity to "cause harm". The social network will now also report how many posts were removed for selling "regulated goods" such as drugs and guns. It said it took action on more than one million posts selling guns in the six-month period covered by the report.
For some types of content, such as child sex abuse imagery, violence and terrorist propaganda, the report estimates how often such content was actually seen by people on Facebook. The report said that out of every 10,000 pieces of content viewed on Facebook:
- about 14 views were of nudity
- 25 views were of violence or graphic content
- fewer than three views were of child abuse imagery or terrorist propaganda
Overall, about 5% of the monthly active users on Facebook were fake accounts.
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Saturday May 25 2019, @03:23AM (7 children)
They should cull the rest of the accounts while they are at it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 25 2019, @04:19AM
All 30000 remaining ones after they cut the 3 billion.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Saturday May 25 2019, @04:37AM (5 children)
Well the math is a bit fuzzy to me. On one hand 3 Billion is ~39% of the world population. According to Wikipedia only 41.5% of the world population has any form of internet access. Five percent of active monthly users were fake accounts. 3 Billion is 5% of 60 Billion???
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Saturday May 25 2019, @04:47AM (3 children)
You are assuming that a person might only have 1 account? I'm betting that many of these fake accounts belong to a much smaller group of people or organisations.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 25 2019, @08:05PM (1 child)
yes, they dropped an account my marketer was trying to use for my small enterprise just b/c it was their second account. no warnings. no responses. just lock the biz page and the user account. we weren't doing anything wrong except trying not to use the same account for everything this person wants to do in life. which is against their policy, but it's fucking stupid. facebook should be letting people add all the content they want instead of trying to micromanage all of it. this is part of a bigger issue though and things will only get worse from here.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Sunday May 26 2019, @04:26AM
Their site, their rules. The only way to win is to not play. But that is your choice.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 25 2019, @09:49PM
"I'm betting that many of these fake accounts belong to a much smaller group of people or organisations."
You mispelled "Russians". No need to thank me. And you're welcome.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 25 2019, @04:50AM
Only read TFS which at no point said 3b was “monthly active”. Or related to the 5% of same in any way, nor has fake anything got squat to do with real world population, connected or otherwise. The only statement that that seems true is that captain normal is fuzzy at maths, but no actual proof of that either, so it may just be reading comprehension.