Facebook is looking to crack down on scammers who use malware and fraud to generate phony “Like” votes.
The company said that it has increased its use of automated tools that can detect and remove fraudulent “Likes”. The effort will include the use of updated security components that can better identify suspect behavior.
“On average, less than 1 percent of Likes on any given page will be removed, providing they and their affiliates have been abiding by our terms,” the company said. “These newly improved automated efforts will remove those Likes gained by malware, compromised accounts, deceived users, or purchased bulk Likes.”
The use of fraudulent Likes, or “Like-jacking” has become a popular method for scammers and malware writers to spread their attacks and divert users to advertising or malware-serving sites, as well as advertising affiliate pages.
Just as a click-jacking attacks trick users into visiting a page and artificially inflating traffic numbers, automated Like operations can artificially inflate the perceived popularity of a page or company, allowing the attacker to collect a higher affiliate rate from an advertiser.
Facebook noted that any effort to buy, sell, or otherwise artificially generate “Like” activity on the site is a violation of its terms and conditions.
“These improvements to our site integrity systems benefit both users and brands alike,” the company said. “Users will continue to connect to the Pages and Profiles they authentically want to subscribe to, and Pages will have a more accurate measurement of fan count and demographics.”
This post originally appeared on V3.
This article was originally published on V3.
Related reading
Participating in the conversation: 10 ways to generate traffic WITHOUT Google
Much like the world of search and the perpetually updated algorithms of Google, the landscape of non-Google marketing sees techniques, platforms and priorities change over time. What hasn’t changed is the importance of understanding how to generate traffic without Google. Google is big, but it is not good to concentrate all your efforts into just one referrer.
Experts agree: Social media is ineffective in local link building
As anyone who’s tried to develop links to a local business will know, the link building game for local SEO is a very different beast to standard link building. To give an insight into industry best practices, local SEO tool provider BrightLocal asked 20 experts in local SEO which local link building tactics worked for them. Here's what they found.
ClickZ Buyers Guide | Bid management platform review: Kenshoo
With more than $90 billion spent on paid search in 2017, bid management platforms play a vital role in deriving maximum value from a brand's digital media budget. In this article, we take a look at Kenshoo, a leading bid management tool profiled in the new Buyers Guide from our sister site, ClickZ.
30 ways to market your online business for free
For many people and businesses, the word ‘marketing’ conjures up visions of pricey marketing strategies and excessive expenditure. However, it doesn’t have to be expensive: there are plenty of free ways to market a business. In this post, we share 30 things you can do right now to market your online business for free.
