Giant operation by social media giant! Facebook shuts down 5.4 billion fake accounts

New Delhi, November 14: Facebook has claimed to have shut down 5.4 billion fake accounts on its main platform so far this year, but millions likely remain, the social networking giant said Wednesday.

 

That's compared to roughly 3.3 billion fake accounts removed in all of 2018. As much as 5% of its monthly user base of nearly 2.5 billion consists of fake accounts, the company said, despite advances in technology that have allowed Facebook to catch more fake accounts the moment they are created.

In its latest transparency report, the Internet firm said it has improved its ability to detect and block attempts to create fake and abusive accounts. The detailed report also showed that government demands for user information hit a new high led by the US. Overall, requests by governments for Facebook user data rose 16 per cent to 128,617 in the first half of this year.

Facebook reported that it removed about 11.6 million pieces of content that broke is rules banning child nudity or sexual exploitation of children from the main social network, compared with half that amount in the first three months of this year.