Facebook has tripled its detection and eradication of “fake” likes, which can artificially inflate a brand’s influence on the site and deceive users, the company said in a statement on Friday.
Facebook they really are, and in the same way fool regular users.
Fake likes come from click farms, fake accounts, and malware, which are sold to page owners who want to promote their presence on Facebook.
But in reality, they don't do much to win over their real customers, their fans, or to increase their sales.
By improving its technology for detecting suspicious patterns of likes, Facebook has tripled the number of fake likes it detects and blocks before they even reach a page, the company said in a blog post.
As a result, many vendors who tried to sell fake likes to Facebook page owners have gone out of business.
Facebook began notifying page owners about cases where it blocks or removes fake likes from their pages last month. Since then, Facebook has notified 200,000 page owners. Facebook did not say how many fake likes it has removed.
Selling fake likes is a big challenge for some brands and smaller businesses on Facebook: how best to increase a business’s presence on the site without “getting lost in the crowd.” Instead of focusing on likes, Facebook says brands should focus on specific business goals, such as increasing app downloads or increasing clicks to their business’s website. These goals can be achieved, as expected, through ads.
