Online social media and networking service, Facebook, is suing a company and three individuals in Zealand for allegedly selling fake likes, views, and followers to users of its photo-sharing platform, Instagram.
The company has gone ahead to suspend accounts associated with the defendants whom were earlier warned about the violations their actions constituted against Facebook‘s terms of use.
Protecting their platform
In a statement, Facebook said it took action by suing the company in a US Federal Court, in order to show that such fraudulent services won’t be tolerated.
“By filing the lawsuit, we are sending a message that this kind of fraudulent activity is not tolerated on our services and we will act to protect the integrity of our platform.”
The statement by Facebook continued by saying that the company have also profited greatly from the service of selling those fake engagements to many Instagram users.
Why are users buying fake followers and engagements
Large numbers of social media following has the capacity to attract lucrative sponsorship deals for owners of such accounts. In other words, owners of accounts with large followers, who are also called Social Media Influencers, have the capacity to leverage their so called popularity for money-making; by selling products on behalf on themselves or third parties and getting paid for it.
The company has tried hard to prevent fake engagements
In 2018, Instagram increased its effort to stop users from getting artificial followers and engagement, even as Facebook dealt with the aftermath of a number of scandals; including the Cambridge Analytica Data-sharing saga.
They also went as far as removing pages, groups, and accounts showing “inauthentic behaviour’’ in many countries across the world, including the Philippines, Russia, and Iran.
What must have prompted to that?
This decision was made after the company was accused of playing a role in influencing the 2016’s US presidential Election and the Brexit Referendum.
