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Facebook: Another three billion fake profiles culled

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Facebook: Another three billion fake profiles culled

#11

Post by Shish2k »

tyingq wrote: post #2

"Facebook removed more than three billion fake accounts - more than ever before." Oy. How do you justify letting this issue fester that long / to that degree? How is that not an unprecedented mea culpa? Edit: I'll risk the HN "downvoting not discussed mantra" for this. BILLIONS of active fake accounts is a core competency failure, full stop. World population is single digit billions...give me a break.

Facebook could be ~100% accurate at separating real and fake accounts if they exchanged data with the government to make sure that every user had a passport / social security number / other equivalent associated with their account. Is that the world we want to live in?

Re: Facebook: Another three billion fake profiles culled

#12

Post by lightedman »

mc32 wrote: post #8
tyingq wrote: post #2

"Facebook removed more than three billion fake accounts - more than ever before." Oy. How do you justify letting this issue fester that long / to that degree? How is that not an unprecedented mea culpa? Edit: I'll risk the HN "downvoting not discussed mantra" for this. BILLIONS of active fake accounts is a core competency failure, full stop. World population is single digit billions...give me a break.

What’s the difference between a dual account and a fake account? Is it activism? Is it when the accounts are bought and sold, is it politics?

A dual account (eg a business/personal) on Facebook gives you a store to work with while maintaining both business and personal identity separation (to some degree.)

Re: Facebook: Another three billion fake profiles culled

#13

Post by Shish2k »

criley2 wrote: post #7
threeseed wrote: post #4

During the recent Australian election there were a number of Facebook advertisements by political figures which were completely false e.g. Labor party imposing a death tax. And given that the election result was pretty close it could've easily have made a difference. So I couldn't care less whether Facebook culled 3 billion profiles or not. What I need is for Facebook to make the hard choice and stop allowing politic…

Even without political advertising, the amount of fake news spread in Groups in the form of memes and images is absolutely fracking staggering. If you go through the facebook feed of a conservative facebook user in their 50s+, you quite literally will see all lies and propaganda, and nothing real (for one ex: see the horribly faked Nancy Pelosi video that spread like wildfire yesterday, despite it's obvious fakeness)…

Do you think any other platforms are doing better, or is all social media inherently doomed?

Re: Facebook: Another three billion fake profiles culled

#14

Post by Cthulhu_ »

Shish2k wrote: post #11
tyingq wrote: post #2

"Facebook removed more than three billion fake accounts - more than ever before." Oy. How do you justify letting this issue fester that long / to that degree? How is that not an unprecedented mea culpa? Edit: I'll risk the HN "downvoting not discussed mantra" for this. BILLIONS of active fake accounts is a core competency failure, full stop. World population is single digit billions...give me a break.

Facebook could be ~100% accurate at separating real and fake accounts if they exchanged data with the government to make sure that every user had a passport / social security number / other equivalent associated with their account. Is that the world we want to live in?

Some countries already do that - China, obviously. UK wants you to upload your ID when visiting a porn site (think of the children!). Japan has ID requirements for certain types of websites.

And of course, both Google / Youtube and Facebook have had a real name policy in place for a long time, to much objections. I've gotten a popup from Facebook asking me if the name of a friend who intentionally uses a fake name on Facebook to try and avoid her stalker is correct.

Re: Facebook: Another three billion fake profiles culled

#15

Post by onion2k »

tyingq wrote: post #2

"Facebook removed more than three billion fake accounts - more than ever before." Oy. How do you justify letting this issue fester that long / to that degree? How is that not an unprecedented mea culpa? Edit: I'll risk the HN "downvoting not discussed mantra" for this. BILLIONS of active fake accounts is a core competency failure, full stop. World population is single digit billions...give me a break.

How do you justify letting this issue fester that long / to that degree?

The article reports that Facebook said they "... spotted and deleted a majority of them within minutes, before they had any opportunity to "cause harm"." That would imply they're not letting the fake accounts fester but the scale of the problem is just absolutely huge.

Re: Facebook: Another three billion fake profiles culled

#16

Post by x86_64Ubuntu »

Shish2k wrote: post #11
tyingq wrote: post #2

"Facebook removed more than three billion fake accounts - more than ever before." Oy. How do you justify letting this issue fester that long / to that degree? How is that not an unprecedented mea culpa? Edit: I'll risk the HN "downvoting not discussed mantra" for this. BILLIONS of active fake accounts is a core competency failure, full stop. World population is single digit billions...give me a break.

Facebook could be ~100% accurate at separating real and fake accounts if they exchanged data with the government to make sure that every user had a passport / social security number / other equivalent associated with their account. Is that the world we want to live in?

That's not the point and it's not even related to the discussion. I'm not sure why you are trying to bring in Big Brother nonsense.

The fact of the matter is that there are only 7 billion people on earth, and Facebook had a whopping 3 billion fake accounts. So how did they let it hit 0.5, 1,2 and 3 billion fakes before doing something? Surely with all their algorithms and AI/ML/Data Scientists they could have intervened sooner, but they didn't.

Re: Facebook: Another three billion fake profiles culled

#17

Post by [deleted] »

Shish2k wrote: post #11
tyingq wrote: post #2

"Facebook removed more than three billion fake accounts - more than ever before." Oy. How do you justify letting this issue fester that long / to that degree? How is that not an unprecedented mea culpa? Edit: I'll risk the HN "downvoting not discussed mantra" for this. BILLIONS of active fake accounts is a core competency failure, full stop. World population is single digit billions...give me a break.

Facebook could be ~100% accurate at separating real and fake accounts if they exchanged data with the government to make sure that every user had a passport / social security number / other equivalent associated with their account. Is that the world we want to live in?

[deleted]

Re: Facebook: Another three billion fake profiles culled

#18

Post by onion2k »

Shish2k wrote: post #11
tyingq wrote: post #2

"Facebook removed more than three billion fake accounts - more than ever before." Oy. How do you justify letting this issue fester that long / to that degree? How is that not an unprecedented mea culpa? Edit: I'll risk the HN "downvoting not discussed mantra" for this. BILLIONS of active fake accounts is a core competency failure, full stop. World population is single digit billions...give me a break.

Facebook could be ~100% accurate at separating real and fake accounts if they exchanged data with the government to make sure that every user had a passport / social security number / other equivalent associated with their account. Is that the world we want to live in?

That would only be 100% accurate if the government approved ID was perfectly secure, and no one ever leaked databases of those personal details. Tens of millions of passport and social security numbers are already out in the wild.

Re: Facebook: Another three billion fake profiles culled

#19

Post by fredley »

pluma wrote: post #10
fredley wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if it is banned, how on earth are you going to enforce it in any meaningful way? Truth, lies, boots, World...

Same way you enforce any other rule. Same way they already enforce the rules they have? I hope you weren't hoping for an argument about slippery slopes. And yes, of course that means they may have to hire more moderators and of course that means more expenses. Who ever said Facebook should get away with no moderation just because they're successful?

I mean what's to prevent me putting up ads that I say aren't political, but are? By the time they've been reported and taken down it's already too late?

Re: Facebook: Another three billion fake profiles culled

#20

Post by threeseed »

fredley wrote: post #5
threeseed wrote: post #4

During the recent Australian election there were a number of Facebook advertisements by political figures which were completely false e.g. Labor party imposing a death tax. And given that the election result was pretty close it could've easily have made a difference. So I couldn't care less whether Facebook culled 3 billion profiles or not. What I need is for Facebook to make the hard choice and stop allowing politic…

Even if it is banned, how on earth are you going to enforce it in any meaningful way? Truth, lies, boots, World...

Simple really.

1) Ban any political figure who buys a political ad. If you set an example others will follow.

2) Facebook/Twitter/etc already have a verification mechanism and so anyone who isn't verified and using words like tax, election, vote etc can be sent to a moderation queue.

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