Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's Chief Operating Officer, said in a recent statement that over a six-month period the social network had to delete 1.27 billion fake accounts.
According to Sandberg's statement, the operation relied on manual review methods, as well as the help of automated review methods based on artificial intelligence.
The process of keeping the number of fake accounts under control allows Facebook to discover malicious users who are trying to exploit the services offered by the platform for personal gain rather than for socialization.
During the hearing before the Select Intelligence Committee, the Facebook spokesperson also mentioned that the social network is working on removing spam content from its platform, with a staggering 836 million pieces of such content removed in the first quarter of 2018 alone.
Sheryl Sandberg emphasized that Facebook has a security team that deals exclusively with malicious users by creating walls against their actions.
Essentially, with the help of its team of security experts, Facebook wants to stop the spread of malicious content to its users, send automated notifications to people who have been affected by various types of cyberattacks, as well as ensure that accounts have not been hacked using artificial intelligence techniques.
