5.4 Billions account shutdown by Facebook in 2019

Kavya Pruthi
January 03, 2022, 10:45 PM

According to the latest report, Facebook this year has deleted around 5.4 billion fake accounts on its platform. The previous year, Facebook had roughly deleted 3.3 billion accounts. Out of total accounts on its platform, there are 5% of fake accounts. The company is working hard to catch more fake accounts the moment they are created. The latest disclosure highlights the challenge before the Facebook as it prepares for high-stakes election season in the US along with 2020 US census.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg on a call with reporters said, "Because our numbers are high doesn't mean there's that much more harmful content. It just means we're working harder to identify this content, and that's why it's higher,"

Facebook uses a set of community guidelines outlining what is and not allowed on its social network site. Areas, which these guidelines target, are- Adult Nudity and Sexual Activity, Bullying and Harassment, Child Nudity and Sexual Exploitation of Children, Fake Accounts, Hate Speech, Regulated Goods: Drugs and Firearms, Spam, Terrorist Propaganda, Violent and Graphic Content, and Suicide and Self-Injury

During the third quarter, 11.6 million content depicting child nudity and sexual exploitation were available on Facebook. Similarly, on the terrorist propaganda, Facebook says its proactive detection rate for content from al-Qaeda, ISIS and their affiliates is above 99 per cent. For all terrorist organisations, the rate is above 98 per cent.

Facebook and Instagram- Hand-in-Hand

Instagram, on the other hand, focused data covered the company's enforcement efforts against child exploitation. However, the reporting on Instagram does not cover topics Facebook covered including hate speech. According to the executive of Facebook, Instagram uses the Facebook system to detect harmful content.

Earlier this year, Facebook also began to allow hate speech algorithms to automatically removing the content, which violates the company's policies.

Over the years, Facebook came under huge criticism from activists and politicians globally over the spread of hate speech and many fake accounts. Civil right leaders pressed hard on Zuckerberg to act towards such fake accounts and hate speeches. Facebook has also published a new enforcement page that shows multiple examples of "how our Community Standards apply to different types of content and see where we draw the line."