In total, Facebook has banned 2.2 billion fake accounts which is a number similar to the numbers of those who were assessed as ‘real’ users of the social network. The removal of the false identities took place during the first three months of 2019. The extent of the cull is revealed in the third edition of Fakebook’s Community Standards Enforcement report. With its new attempt at transparency, this is a public report that outlines Facebook’s process of ensuring that it removes fake accounts, false news, abusive material, illegal activity, spam, and other questionable content.
According to analysis by Business Insider, the new data from Facebook indicates a large climb in the number of fake accounts requiring deletion. With the 2.19 billion accounts banned in Q1 2019, this is a climb up from 1.2 billion noted in Q4 2018.
Commenting on the exercise, Facebook’s VP of Integrity Guy Rosen wrote of this trend states (quoted by ABC News): “The amount of accounts we took action on increased due to automated attacks by bad actors who attempt to create large volumes of accounts at one time.”
He adds: “Preventing abuse from fake accounts but also giving people the power to share through authentic accounts. We have to strike the right balance between these goals.”
The Facebook report also details how the company deals with community standards violations. These fall into one of nine categories: adult nudity and sexual activity, bullying and harassment, child nudity and sexual exploitation of children, fake accounts, hate speech, regulated goods, spam, global terrorist propaganda and violence and graphic content.
