Facebook is going after companies that promote the sale of fake accounts, likes, and followers.
On Friday, a lawsuit was filed in US federal court against four companies and three people based in the People’s Republic of China.
The companies were selling fake accounts, likes, and followers on Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms like Amazon, Apple, Google, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
In a statement, the company explains what it aims to achieve through the lawsuit:
“By filing the lawsuit, we hope to reinforce that this kind of fraudulent activity is not tolerated – and that we’ll act forcefully to protect the integrity of our platform.”
The lawsuit asks the court to prevent these people and entities from:
- Creating and promoting the sale of fake accounts, likes, and followers on Facebook and Instagram
- Infringing on Facebook’s trademarks on their websites
- Using Facebook-branded domain names to operate their websites
Facebook says it devotes significant resources to detecting and stopping this type of behavior.
This past November, Instagram announced it was purging fake followers, comments, and likes generated by third-party apps.
Apparently, that was not just a one-and-done occurrence, as Facebook says in its latest announcement that it disables millions of fake accounts every day.
Now the company is taking its efforts a step further by filing multiple lawsuits.
If Facebook wins the lawsuits it will certainly set a legal precedent with respect to the selling of fake like, followers, and accounts.
