Global Upfront Newspapers
CoverNewsTech

Facebook Says It Took Down 1.3 Billion Fake Accounts in October-December

  • Facebook said it also removed more than 12 million pieces of content about COVID-19 flagged as misinformation

By Gadgets 360 With Inputs From Reuters, 22 March 2021

Facebook said on Monday that it took down 1.3 billion fake accounts between October and December last year, and that it had over 35,000 people working on tackling misinformation on its platform.

The social media giant said that it also removed more than 12 million pieces of content about COVID-19 and vaccines that global health experts flagged as misinformation.

False claims and conspiracies about the coronavirus vaccines have proliferated on social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter during the pandemic.

Facebook’s disclosure of data on misinformation comes ahead of an inspection by the US House Committee on Energy and Commerce into how technology platforms including Facebook are tackling misinformation.

About the removal of fake accounts, Facebook said that it investigates and takes down covert foreign and domestic influence operations that rely on fake account.I

“Over the past three years, we’ve removed over 100 networks of coordinated inauthentic behavior (CIB) from our platform and keep the public informed about our efforts through our monthly CIB reports,” the company said in a blogpost.

The company said that it cracks down on deceptive behaviour by disrupting the economic incentives structure behind it.

“We’ve built teams and systems to detect and enforce against inauthentic behaviour tactics behind a lot of clickbait,” Facebook said. “We also use artificial intelligence to help us detect fraud and enforce our policies against inauthentic spam accounts.”

Facebook that also owns other popular social media and messaging platforms including WhatsApp and Instagram noted that users could also post misinformation “in good faith”. To address that, it said that the company has built a global network of more than 80 independent fact-checkers, who review content in more than 60 languages.

Advertize With Us

See Also

Liberian President George Weah Concedes Defeat After Provisional Results Show Challenger Won Runoff

Global Upfront

UK woman carries twins in separate wombs in ‘1 in 50 million’ case

Global Upfront

Haiti Can Solve Its Own Problems, if Foreign Powers Would Let It

Global Upfront

$839 million required to implement humanitarian response plan in Northeast, for 2020.

Global Upfront

Algeria denounces African Union for granting Israel observer status

Global Upfront

Peter Obi Breaks Ramadan Fast With Muslim Faithful In Awka, Says Poverty Responsible For Insecurity In Northern Nigeria

Global Upfront

This website uses Cookies to improve User experience. We assume this is OK...If not, please opt-out! Accept Read More