Facebook eliminates fake ‘likes’ in security crackdown
Facebook has begun to remove fake ‘likes’ on brand pages, with Lady Gaga seen to drop 34,000 followers from this.
The social media site said in a blog post a month ago that it would be removing those caused by compromised accounts, deceived users, malware or purchased bulk ‘likes’.
The blog said: “On average, less than 1% of Likes on any given Page will be removed, providing they and their affiliates have been abiding by our terms. These newly improved automated efforts will remove those Likes gained by malware, compromised accounts, deceived users, or purchased bulk Likes.
“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. This improvement will allow Pages to produce ever more relevant and interesting content, and brands will see an increase in the true engagement around their content.”
According to PageData, Texas HoldEm Poker saw a loss of more than 96,000 ‘likes’ in the past day in the cull, while Farmville dropped 45,000 and Rihanna is down 28,000 followers.