Facebook Aims to Keep It Real by Removing Fake ‘Likes’

Posted 09/03/2012 at 10:54am | by Paul Lilly

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In Mark Zuckerberg's relentless effort to improve the world's largest social playground, Facebook is waging war against bogus "Likes" that may have originated from false accounts. This isn't something that will affect the average user, but it will eliminate Likes gained by malware, compromised accounts, and other nefarious means, the company recently announced.

"When a Page and fan connect on Facebook, we want to ensure that connection involves a real person interested in hearing from a specific Page and engaging with that brand’s content," Facebook Security stated in a blog post. "As such, we have recently increased our automated efforts to remove Likes on Pages that may have been gained by means that violate our Facebook Terms."

According to Facebook, less than 1 percent of Likes on any given Page will be removed, so long as they and their affiliates are abiding by the rules.

Bogus Likes are part of a larger problem on Facebook. In a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing earlier this year, Facebook disclosed that as many as 83 million fake accounts exist, which is nearly 9 percent of its total userbase.

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