Facebook seeks to delete fake profiles

Facebook is making a 'huge effort' to crackdown on the millions of users who have set up of fake profiles on the site, a senior company official has revealed.

Last month the social network revealed that it currently has more than 83million false accounts, making up 8.7 per cent of its 995million active users.

Defined as 'an account that a user maintains in addition to his or her principal account', the astonishing figures were revealed in the company's  first public financial report since its Initial Public Offering in May.

In a bid to tackle the problem, Facebook may ask users to prove their identity if doubts about the authenticity of the account match certain criteria.

'There is a huge effort,' Facebook business executive Pavan Varma, told the Press Trust of India (PTI).

'If Facebook doubts the ownership of an account, it will ask the user to identify himself/herself.'
According to Varma, the doubt about the authenticity of the account will arise if an account has a generic name instead of a proper name, uses images of celebrities or cartoon characters as display pictures, or does not have enough friends.

He added: 'It could even be that Facebook comes back to you saying, could you help us identify yourself if you don't have enough friends, because we don't want fake identities.
'We are worried about the experience we deliver... It's not about protecting our brand identity so much.'

A recent BBC investigation also found companies were spending money on fake 'likes' in a bid to boost its perceived popularity on the network.

'A Like that doesn't come from someone truly interested in connecting with a page benefits no one,' the company said in a blog post.

'Real identity, for both users and brands on Facebook, is important to not only Facebook's mission of helping the world share, but also the need for people and customers to authentically connect to the pages they care about.'


/metro.co.uk/