Facebook Removes a Record 2.2 Billion Fake Accounts
- Number of disabled accounts more than triples from a year ago
- Company pulls over 1.5 million posts for promoting drugs, guns
This article is for subscribers only.
Facebook Inc. said it removed 2.2 billion fake accounts in the first quarter, a record that shows how the company is battling an avalanche of bad actors trying to undermine the authenticity of the world’s largest social network.
In the final quarter of 2018, Facebook disabled just more than 1 billion fake accounts and 583 million in the first quarter of last year. The vast majority are removed within minutes of being created, the company said, so they’re not counted in Facebook’s closely watched monthly and daily active user metrics.