Facebook is the largest social networking website with more than 800
million users worldwide. In spite of such huge numbers, the fact is a
lot of Facebook accounts are fake. Official figures from Facebook say as
many as 8.7 per cent or 83 million accounts on the network are bogus.
About 4.8 percent of them are duplicate, 2.4 percent are
user-misclassified accounts and 1.5 percent are “undesirable” accounts.
According to Facebook India business manager Pavan Varma, the social networking website is making “huge efforts” to reduce these numbers and prevent misuse of such identities. The official further reveals in case a dubious account is found, Facebook will ask the user to provide his/her identification details. Accounts that use a generic name instead of a proper name, use images of celebrities/cartoon characters as profile image, or do not have “enough friends,” may come under the Facebook scanner, says Varma.
"It could even be that Facebook comes back to you saying, could you help us identify yourself if you don't have enough friends, because we don't want fake identities. We are worried about the experience we deliver...It's not about protecting our brand identity so much," he said.
The Facebook official also acknowledged malware and other methods were used to create fake accounts and Likes. Varma further said advertisers should not only focus on numbers. "How does an advertiser today treat a Facebook page? It is treated as a place where they just come with a number of people who are there. But that is a wrong way of doing it," he stressed.
It's notable the social networking website has put in place several ways to ensure it only has authentic users. Facebook allows users to verify their phone numbers and also report accounts that seem bogus. To know more about how to report a violation, visit Facebook Help Center.
According to Facebook India business manager Pavan Varma, the social networking website is making “huge efforts” to reduce these numbers and prevent misuse of such identities. The official further reveals in case a dubious account is found, Facebook will ask the user to provide his/her identification details. Accounts that use a generic name instead of a proper name, use images of celebrities/cartoon characters as profile image, or do not have “enough friends,” may come under the Facebook scanner, says Varma.
"It could even be that Facebook comes back to you saying, could you help us identify yourself if you don't have enough friends, because we don't want fake identities. We are worried about the experience we deliver...It's not about protecting our brand identity so much," he said.
The Facebook official also acknowledged malware and other methods were used to create fake accounts and Likes. Varma further said advertisers should not only focus on numbers. "How does an advertiser today treat a Facebook page? It is treated as a place where they just come with a number of people who are there. But that is a wrong way of doing it," he stressed.
It's notable the social networking website has put in place several ways to ensure it only has authentic users. Facebook allows users to verify their phone numbers and also report accounts that seem bogus. To know more about how to report a violation, visit Facebook Help Center.
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