While announcing blockbuster earnings, Facebook quietly discloses as many as 270 million accounts are likely fake or duplicate.
Although Facebook claims to be really strict about verifying real people are behind accounts, the numbers show something entirely different. As I mentioned previously in a comment yesterday, many have suspected as much as 70% of Facebook paid impressions are fraudulent and tied to many of these accounts.
Facebook recently made a feeble attempt at correcting this by purging tens of thousands of accounts prior to global elections. This is a direct result of a pledge to Congress to do more to prevent fake accounts. Similar pledges were made by Google and Twitter.
Future efforts may be more successful as they are doubling their 10,000 review staff and implementing artificial intelligence to further detect fraud.
A lot of these fraudulent accounts are used to promote fake news and hidden agendas from individuals, organizations, and even foreign governments.
