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Periscope details plan to cut down on spam and fake activity
Periscope, the livestreaming app owned by Twitter, is banning fake engagement on the platform. This includes fake hearts, chats, followers, and views. In a Medium post, the company told users to expect an "increase in enforcement actions" as the policy takes effect. Similar to Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and other social media platforms, Periscope users can also expect account-level spam reporting options in the future.
New York settles with company selling fake social media followers
The state of New York's Attorney General has settled a case with a company that made millions of dollars selling likes, comments and followers on social media, according to CNN. The activity of the now-defunct Devumi was discovered as part of a probe carried out by New York's Attorney General's office. The owner of the company, German Calas, Jr., will pay a pretty insignificant penalty of $50,000 to cover the cost of the investigation.
Michael Cohen reportedly paid for fake Twitter flattery
Let's play a game of "would you rather." Would you rather an investigation upend criminal details about your past that land you in jail and put your business dealings under public scrutiny, or would you rather that investigation unearth the fact that you paid someone to create a fake Twitter account that talks about how sexy you are? Well, if you're Michael Cohen, you don't have to choose.
Twitter and Facebook target fake accounts ahead of Bangladesh election
Both Facebook and Twitter have removed a handful of accounts ahead of Bangladesh's general election, citing coordinated manipulation and inauthentic behavior as their reasons. Facebook took down nine Pages and six accounts while Twitter suspended 15 accounts. Twitter said most of the accounts it removed had fewer than 50 followers and Facebook reported that around 11,900 people followed at least one of the Pages it took down.
Twitter bans fake Putin account that the real Putin followed
Twitter has banned a fake Vladimir Putin account for impersonating the Russian leader. But in a bizarre turn of events, the real Putin had been following his imitator for the past several years, reports the Business Insider.
Facebook takes down hundreds of spam accounts and Pages
Facebook announced today that it is taking down 559 Pages and 251 accounts for breaking its rules on spam and coordinated inauthentic behavior. Though that's a relatively small number for Facebook -- by the second quarter of this year, it had already removed 583 million fake accounts -- this round of takedowns shows how the company is targeting spam that's motivated by money rather than politics.
Twitter touts its recent work to 'protect the integrity of elections'
It's almost the midterm elections in the US, and that means disinformation campaigns could be working overtime. Social networks have been introducing new features, rolling out changes and even asking the government for help to fight off trolls and fake news disseminators. Twitter, for instance, has expanded its ability to spot and remove fake accounts. In a post detailing its elections integrity work, the microblogging platform said it may now delete "fake accounts engaged in a variety of emergent, malicious behaviors."
Twitter reportedly suspended 70 million fake accounts in May and June
Twitter been ramping up its purges of fake users, suspending 70 million accounts in May and June in its attempts to reduce the impact of misinformation. That's more than double the rate the social media platform was suspending back in October, according to The Washington Post.
Facebook removes fake pages in Latin America ahead of elections
Facebook has taken down more than 10,000 allegedly fake Pages, Groups and accounts sourcing from Mexico and Latin America for violating the platform's community standards. Specifically, they "broke our policies on coordinated harm and inauthentic behavior, as well as attacks based on race, gender or sexual orientation," according to a blog post written by Facebook's head of cybersecurity policy.
Facebook has already removed 583 million fake accounts this year
Last month, Facebook published its internal community enforcement guidelines for the first time and today, the company has provided some numbers to show what that enforcement really looks like. In a new report that will be published quarterly, Facebook breaks down its enforcement efforts across six main areas -- graphic violence, adult nudity and sexual activity, terrorist propaganda, hate speech, spam and fake accounts. The report details how much of that content was seen by Facebook users, how much of it was removed and how much of it was taken down before any Facebook users reported it.
Twitter says most recent follower purge is about bots, not politics
A number of Twitter users are claiming the platform is purging itself of conservative viewpoints as some lost thousands of followers last night. Richard Spencer, writer Mark Pantano and Candace Owens of Turning Point USA were among those spreading the #TwitterLockOut hashtag campaign and claiming that only conservative accounts were being targeted.
Facebook's widening role in electing Trump
Facebook admitted this week that a Russian propaganda mill used the social-media giant's ad service for political operation around the 2016 campaign. This came out when sources revealed to The Washington Post on Wednesday that Facebook was grilled by 2016 Russia-Trump congressional investigators behind closed doors Wednesday. US lawmakers are furious. Putin's propaganda farm bought around $150,000 in political ads from at least June 2015-May 2017; Facebook was compelled to share the information and will be cooperating with ongoing investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election. The troll farm in question is the Internet Research Agency, a well-funded, well-established, nimble, English-speaking, pro-Putin propaganda unit, and the ads are in all likelihood illegal.
Facebook is now better at detecting fake accounts
Facebook has incorporated some technical changes to its website that make it easier to address one of its biggest problems: spam accounts. According to a blog post by Protect and Care Team manager Shabnam Shaik, the social network can now detect fake accounts more effectively, even ones that may look authentic. The company's upgraded systems identify inauthentic profiles by looking for patterns, such as repeatedly posting the same thing over and over or a sudden spike in messaging activity. Shaik says their systems can do those without looking at the actual contents of users' posts.
