Facebook may have over 100 million fake accounts globally
 

Facebook may have over 100 million fake accounts globally - The Times of India

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Facebook may have over 100 million fake accounts globally
PTI | May 5, 2014, 10.24 AM IST

HYDERABAD: Social networking site Facebook said the website may have over 100 million 'duplicate' accounts, and their percentage being higher in developing markets such as India, besides 5 to 15 million 'undesirable' accounts registered with it worldwide, as per company's estimations.

"There may be individuals who maintain one or more Facebook accounts in violation of our terms of service. We estimate, for example, that 'duplicate' accounts (an account that a user maintains in addition to his or her principal account) may have represented between approximately 4.3% and 7.9% of our worldwide MAUs (Monthly Active User) in 2013," Facebook said in the SEC filing.

According to the latest quarterly report, Facebook said the percentage of duplicate or false accounts is higher in developing markets such as India and Turkey.

As of March 31, 2014, the site had 1.28 billion MAUs, an increase of 15 per cent from last March 31. Users in India and Brazil represented key sources of growth in the first quarter of 2014 relative to the same period in 2013, the filing with SEC said.

"In 2013, for example, we estimate user-misclassified accounts may have represented between approximately 0.8% and 2.1% of our worldwide MAUs and undesirable accounts may have represented between approximately 0.4% and 1.2% of our worldwide MAUs," it further said.

User-misclassified accounts, are the profiles created by users for a business, organisation, or non-human entity such as a pet while undesirable accounts, are user profiles that are intended to be used for purposes that violate terms of service, such as spamming.

Facebook further said the estimations of duplicate or false accounts 'may not' accurately represent the actual number of such accounts and the social website is continually seeking to improve ability to identify duplicate or false accounts and estimate the total number of such accounts, and such estimates may change due to improvements or changes in its methodology.

Worldwide mobile MAUs increased 34% to 1.01 billion as of March 31, 2014 from 751 million as of March 31, 2013.

In all regions, an increasing number of MAUs are accessing Facebook through mobile devices, with users in India, Brazil, and the United States representing key sources of mobile MAU growth over the first quarter of 2014, as compared to the same period in 2013.

Worldwide Daily Active Users (DAU) increased 21% to 802 million on average during March 2014 from 665 million during March 2013 due to growth across major markets including Brazil, India, and the United States.

Overall growth in DAUs was driven largely by increased mobile usage of Facebook.

The number of DAUs accessing Facebook on personal computers decreased in March 2014 compared to the same period in 2013, Facebook further said.

should shed a little bit of light as well

This was an eye opening video, and absolutely the case. I have dabbled in facebook advertising, and unless you spend a LOT of time focusing on a specific group, you will end up with a bunch of Indian or Indonesian likes.

There was a way around it by scraping account ID's off groups and fan pages. They have put a stop to this however. That was VERY effective, and was by far the best way to reach an audience of actual real people.

This is news? I have several along with multiple Twitter and Google+ accounts. I use them for testing purposes and nothing else. Plus the "throwaway" accounts for the same reason I have extra e-mail accounts.

8% of all accounts being fake is pretty interesting IMO

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anybody remember the AOL days.....no comment!

Only 8%? Considering the amount of spam postings I see in groups I would've imagined it to be even higher.

all crazy ex-gfs

I officially deleted my Facebook account two days ago. Feels great. Useless site these days and I found myself only going on there when I had nothing else to do... for no real reason. Better off now.

I ran a contest for a client once on facebook. One of those contests where people upload photos and then other users can vote for their favourite. It was mind blowing how many people hacked our contest by uploading a photo and then using fake accounts to "vote" for their photo. What a nightmare.

What's the point of deleting it. Unless you were addicted to Facebook, I don't understand how can you feel "liberated" from deleting an account of something you sound like you never really used much in the first place.

I don't really understand this line of thinking, as I know several friends who avoid Facebook for the sake of just avoiding Facebook. And tbh, kind of annoying as they have to be filled in the loop of some event separately as they are the only ones that can't be added or notified in a Facebook group.

Those selfish bastards, actually making their friends communicate with them directly...

I didn't delete my account but purged a lot of people. Basically if I see you daily/weekly, there's no need to be on my FB. If you want to know what's going on, just come talk to me... pick up the phone and call, go out for a beer, etc...

The only people on my account are family and friends who live abroad. I rarely post and when I do, the post is deleted after a month.

yeah it's like assholes that don't use whatsapp or some form of data text (where information can be spread much easily in groups/voice/pics etc.).

what the fuck. get with the times.

many people/friends have dropped outta social events, and become more and more some type of recluse because they have some weird tendency to want to avoid all forms of e-social apps.

people just stop talking to them because it's so hard to get them in the loop. you feel like a constant telephone relay operator.

eventually no one cares anymore. it's like they're intentionally trying to distance themselves from everyone.

it's pretty much an inflated sense of ego. they think someone is out to get them or suck their privacy away (really that's very CiC thinking, it's just a lesser form of paranoia, talk about mini schizoids).

and it's also inflated ego because they feel that they're special enough that someone has to contact them DIRECTLY and spend the extra time to call them and TALK to them... like their friends are some sorta customer service agents or some shit.

it's like yo man, get with the fucking times.

sure you don't have to use facebook, but don't be some recluse that is only contactable by text and or phone call. and IF for whatever personal reason you MUST do that. don't be an asshole and not reply immediately. you're already a hinder on society in the social aspect. don't push yourself further away from your friends.

and don't give me "if they're my true friends they wont leave me" bullshit.
if you were a true friend you wouldn't impose your reclusive values on the REST OF THE WORLD to bend over for you.

people are busy. people don't have time to spend an hour to go hangout just to tell you about some social event the next week. or whatever. just to have you say "sigh... i duno maybe".

you're not special. people have OTHER friends too. you're only lowering your value as a friend. hard to contact, hard to get a hold of, hard to hangout with. requires special social actions to bring out of your cave... just seems like someone that prefers to have no friends and probably doesn't wanna hangout.

don't bother replying if you only have like less than like 50 friends on facebook or whatever. if you only have a handful of people you ever keep contact with, well it makes sense... because you're already a recluse.

e-social apps are for group cohesion. it's very simple. the whole works more efficiently through an app, instead of one person relaying over and over again. it makes the world much smaller, and easier to reach out much further than before. don't limit yourself.

/endrant... for now.

Not addicted at all, just found I was only on it when I was bored. Rather than doing something more productive. I didn't mind facebook 4-5 years ago. But recently it's all ads, "liked" pictures or articles and rarely any actual info on friend. Also, since I kept my friends list small... mainly only people I actually see on a regular basis I don't feel I'm missing out on anything. I also deleted snapchat... I'm just trying to move away from social media and back to the old school way of communicating with people. In person. So far I'm enjoying it. I've gone once before for 6 months with a deactivated account and don't really know why I reactivated it. But this time I'm pretty confident I won't be back.

And in reply to the above post, if it's too much of an "inconvenience" to call/text me when you want to chill then you're probably not much of a friend anyways. I don't need 500+ "friends" to feel fulfilled in life. I'm happy with the 15-20 I see regularly and that's all I need.

I knew a few people who got rid of their Facebooks and the one major complaint from them I heard often is it makes planning things as a group a bit of a nightmare. FB kinda took over the event planning and organization market so if your social circle uses it, issues can come up where you're the odd man out.

About the article though, that's actually way lower than what I was expecting.

Your social gathering means nothing if you need to invite people through facebook.

Why must everyone get facebook just because your inflated ego needs people to attend your so-called social gathering.

I hate facebook just because it is a brand, not the idea of social media.
Why don't people use google+ to create such "social gathering".
Why must people open account in facebook just to join your social gathering?

It's like forcing people to drink pepsi when they want to drink coke.

because more people use it. It's more convenient for the most amount of people.

whether it's a 5 person party or a 5000 person party.

It's no different than if you had no cell phone now, and your friends had to send you snail mail, or actually meet you to tell you some details, which you can easily have instant access to yourself. but nope... someone has to relay it to you, just so you can ask another question, which is already answered on the events page.

the word social, is in the phrase social gathering. social refers to one conforming to a shared platform of understanding and communication so that the gathering part is organized... socially.

unless you're a favourite/close friend, or have leverage in the group you hang out with... eventually you'll miss out, and you won't even know.

listen, i don't know about you. but i have far more than 1 group of friends I hang out with, and not all of them are in the same country. I have more friends than I have time to manage. I don't wanna sound like a fucking jerk, but I guess you really don't know how much time it saves unless you had that many people in your life to keep in touch with.

you can hate facebook for whatever biased reason you can pull out of your ass. But hey, a lot of people use it, and the events organization function is hella useful. and keeping in touch with people by peering into their life (and they peering into yours), is a hella time saver. without that, i would be totally out of touch with hundreds of people i've met over my life. but with fb, i can just msg them any time, regardless of how long we haven't talked. because I know they know what's been happening in my life, and vice versa.

it's that simple, if you're a social creature, you'll maximize that aspect of your life. Not calling you anti social. but if you were to categorize your social level, in comparison to the rest of humanity. you can bet that you value social life less than others, because you're willing to put a bias up to deny yourself a tool that allows you access to other humans... other people just value social connection more than you. to the point where they won't put up these silly biases. they go, where the social terminal is. they don't care what it is.

I use fb, because most people use it, it's as simple as that. If everyone migrates to something else, I will too. Because I don't care which platform people use. I just care that I can connect with them CONVENIENTLY and with EASE.

it's just a tool I use.

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think whatever you guys want. Your type of thinking has been around long before electronics.

You can stop using it, or try to live in the past with some archiac life style, like every other stereotypical old grandpa, but don't try to drag other people down. This is just milder form of technophobia.

If you're not "wasting time" scrolling your your FB feed, you're wasting time scrolling through RS, or some other news feed, local news, international news, RSS...

when really, FB feed is full of news about the people that are theoretically closest in connection to you, and matter to your life most. cuz really, reading about how someone got murdered in some city, is more important? than that elementary school acquaintance that lives in the SAME city as you, who got married to to a girl you have 20 connections to.

really? what's more important?

like i said, depends how much you value social connection, and how much you know how to use it to your advantage.

your definitions and labels on life are starting to get out of date, and your actions reflect it. Don't be like old grandpa there... clinging on to his abacus cuz that's the way it was before. that was the good ol way. sure is gramps... sure is.

an ignorant mistake that most people, when disconnecting from social media, make is they assume everyone else has as much time as them... to go "hang out for a beer" or "chat me up" ("if they really wanted to keep in contact").

I wish i had time to have a beer/chat up/blz/shoot pool/party/go workout (whatever they think being "social" is) with every fucking person I wanna keep in contact with AND do my own personal things... i'd be booked everyday for the next 3 years man!

Because most people use it doesn't justify that all people must use it.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not against social media.
I'm against the company facebook.
It's nothing but business here. People are free to choose which company they want to deal with and submit their information to. Some people choose not to use facebook.

The problem with some people is that they believe it is a social "norm" for people to use facebook. The rest who doesn't use it are label as "reclusive". To me, facebook is nothing but a product. The hype about it when it first launched was nothing but a fad. "Only the cool kids had it". This was the marketing strategy used by the company and many fell for it.

There are many alternatives to send mass invites online and I choose not to use facebook. It doesn't mean I'm living in the past. There's just way too many other choices in this current time.

In my opinion, I think many will leave facebook for these alternative choices.

The matter of truth is the website facebook is in trouble. Why else would Mark decided to buy Whatsapp for such a hefty amount when they have their own facebook chat?
That was actually a good move by him (arguable). That might just extend the lifespan of facebook. We'll just have to see how long it will survive with the help of instagram and Whatsapp.

I do understand your frustration in this but you have to understand some people use facebook and some people use weibo or google+ or viber or line or wechat (weixin) etc.
Not everyone have to use facebook.
Unless you can think of something to link them all together. But in this capitalistic society, it is not an easy task to get the companies to agree to do so.

You don't have to use Facebook, but people don't have to join a bunch of other shit just to ivnite you to events or whatever. I have a FB account and that's what I use for pictures and events and such, I'm not going to make an account on every social media site just to send things to every special snowflake who doesn't want to use Facebook.

To use your pop analogy, they're not forcing you to drink Coke, but if all they have to offer is Coke you can either drink Coke or go thirsty, don't expect them to buy Pepsi just to cater to you.

I permanently deleted my FB account last month. No going backsies for me anymore!

I just find that living in the present, helps me focus n what's important to me. I dont' have kids, have a GF I live with and a family who isnt' close. I easily had over 300+ "friends", none of which I actually spoke to thru FB. I have a small group of friends I communicate with thru text/email, and I'm happy.

So I say to hell with it. I live in the most beautiful place in Western Canada, why bother wasting my time looking at a PC screen of useless crap that doesn't benefit me in any way.

Again. What you're saying is everyone should use fb just so they can be invited to these events. You're not adding anything constructive here.
People don't want to create fb just to cater to those special and cool kids who like to use it.
You just have to accept the fact that not everyone uses FB.

To be honest, I wouldn't invite through fb if it's such an important event.
Say if I was getting married. I would personally call people that I want to attend my wedding.
I would even send snail mail with my wedding invite. It's more sincere this way.

If all they have is Coke (which is not the case here, there are many other choices), I would rather drink free water.

u got it backwards dude.

people don't wanna disconnect and go archaic to cater to people who label facebook as "special/cool kids" or label it as some evil company or some shit.

it's a market, an area of exchange. MOST people use it.

YOU'RE the special "too cool" to use facebook kid.

you have to accept, that most people use it. and if you wanna interact with MOST people, you will have to use it. or be left out.

those are the two options.

you can use whatever else you like... (i use every platform and everything, just to cater to you "cool" kids)... but as a person that isnt biased to platforms....

my value system is ease of connection, and most people using... i don't care what the company values are, who owns it, what financial strategies they have... i don't give a fuck. just give me a place to connect to people EASILY and INSTANTLY.

i can tell you facebook is #1 for that. sure some ppl use G+, weixin/wechat...etc etc. whatever. i use all of em too. but really. when i wanna do something, i use fb, cuz i wanna reach as many people as possible.

i don't give a fuck about the image of facebook. i have no biases remember.
i don't care if they blew 19 zillion dollars on whatsapp. i don't care what their strategy is. i don't invest money in them. i just use them to connect to people.

we're not forcing you to use it... we're just telling you... we're gonna do shit on fb... a lot of shit. and we're not gonna bother telling anyone else cuz we'll assume most normal people will use it.

that's all it is.

it's not some "fad" that's gonna die out. companies may switch, new platforms may come by. but this is the new age of social connection. electronic social connection is just as important as face to face.

you're using excuses like weddings and all that crap. yeah sure, you send out important snail mail invites for that shit. but you only wed once... or twice.. thats like.. no one cares about that.

im talking about weekly dinners. weekly parties. monthly events. anything!
you can use it for so much more.


think of it this way, you already use RS, and im sure you use other forums.
just think of RS like FB... some people may like 4chan more, some ppl like RS more. whatever. that's their choice.

but if u wanna reach out to ppl closest to you, that live close to you, RS is probably better right?

but some ppl might have a grudge against RS for whatever biased reason... oh they don't like ulic, or they think it's run by a buncha tools or this mod is a dick etc.

but really, that's their own view, and they're just limiting themselves from the world.

FB is a window which u can see a whole new world. if u don't wanna look through that window, then don't bitch when everyone else is talking about what they saw, cuz you limited yourself.

it's not some "cool kids" thing... little kids to grandpas use this shit. it's USEFUL. it's got PRAGMATIC REAL USE.

it's a tool. if you don't know how to utilize the tool, it doesn't mean the tool sucks. it just means you don't know how to utilize it.

you will distance yourself and segregate yourself by putting up a wall... which u have already done. u call the fb ppl "cool/special" kids. but you only perceive that because you have labelled fb and associated it with some negativity. but in actual objective reality, it's nothing like that. it's only like that in your life... and it's up to you whether you wanna change that or not.

yes, i do realise not everyone uses facebook. but more people use it than not, so... too bad for the minorities. get with the program, or get lost.

I have more than enough friends to keep refilling the ones that choose to go recluse. their actions get tiring. hiding, paranoid about sharing info... don't wanna share this, log onto that, hiding from this... all for what? for what?! all i can see is, the only result they're getting is being a recluse and distancing themselves from everyone else. there is no other pragmatic result. they arent winning some war on privacy rights, or some other delusional thing.

they're just making it hard for everyone else around them.

if you only have a few friends and you're all tight and u don't need FB and your life is fine.. then fine... whatever.
but most people are not you. most people have lots of friends, and wanna stay connected and know whatsup and have the "in" on info and news that directly matter to them.

i have some friends ive been close with since elementary school. group chats on skype, fb events, whatsapp groups, etc.

oh... but... some guy is anti facebook.. stopped using facebook.. stopped using whatsapp cuz its owned by fb.... so he kinda dropped outta the group, cuz we can only talk to him as an individual, there's no platform where we can all talk together... expcet face to face.. but really, that happens like less than once a month cuz we're all grown up and busy.... slowly.. k he's outta the group... he's just so out of the loop cuz none of the shit we talk about he's caught up on. and obviously he feels more distant too cuz of that... eventually, i don't bother inviting him to anything cuz his anti facebook campaign is just a headache to deal with as a person in society.

needless to say, they have much less of a social life now, cuz no one bothers to talk to them any more.

society dictates to you, not the other way around. unless you wanna be alone.


Underscores coke analogy wasnt that good...
but i agree with him.

basically everyone wants to take a car, but you wanna fucking walk. so everyone has to wait for you.

no matter how you argue it, the people that have transferred to electronic communication will always be waiting for those who don't wanna switch.
and eventually that gets tiring. no matter what friendship you have... there are always greater things... people will gravitate towards those things, and join people that are like minded... and leave those other people behind.

i don't know how else to say it man.

you guys are boycotting FB, for the SAKE of boycotting FB...
it's just the same as hating someone cuz of the way they dress or look.
it's like WHO THE FUCK CARES...

even if you are an active investor in FB and think they're doing stupid things by purchasing oculus and whatsapp... sure then dump your stocks... but you cannot deny the platform of connecting people.

no different than a hippy hating guns, cuz he associates guns with war. and based on nothing else.

or a feminist hating on some movie, cuz there was one line that they associated to being sexist.

it's just INSANE man.

see what you can use it for. not what u think it represents. its a tool. pick it up. use it. let someone else show you how to use it. if you really have no use, then ok. put it away. but some time down the road, i guarantee, someone is gonna be talking about something, that everyone else knows, but you don't... cuz they're connected, and you're not.

it's inevitable.

feels like going to a family dinner and all the adults have no idea what the kids are talking about cuz they're not connected. That's what you guys feel like. archaic, behind, dissolve in the sands of time already. LOL, let the rest of the world advance.

/endrant.. again.