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Fake Facebook 'Like' Networks Exploited Code Flaw To Create Millions of Bogus 'Likes' (usatoday.com)
A thriving ecosystem of websites that allow users to automatically generate millions of fake "likes" and comments on Facebook has been documented by researchers at the University of Iowa. From a report: Working with a computer scientist at Facebook and one in Lahore, Pakistan, the team found more than 50 sites offering free, fake "likes" for users' posts in exchange for access to their accounts, which were used to falsely "like" other sites in turn. The scientists found that these "collusion networks" run by spammers have managed to harness the power of one million Facebook accounts, producing as many as 100 million fake "likes" on the systems between 2015 and 2016. A large number of "likes" can push a posting up in Facebook's algorithm, making it more likely the post will be seen by more people and also making it seem more legitimate.
I haven't seen it on Facebook, so it must have been filtered.
Like... just as "representatives of Facebook" had to come out to the congressional investigation that they've "discovered" that they've sold "roughly 3,000 ads", from June of 2015 to May of 2017, for "approximately $100,000" to "about 470 inauthentic accounts and Pages" which were "affiliated with one another and likely operated out of Russia."...
...their "computer scientist at Facebook" found these ""collusion networks" run by spammers" (not Facebook mind you... not their fault) "producing as many as 100 million fake "likes" on the systems between 2015 and 2016"... in a scam "users are knowingly entering into... to falsely obtain "likes.""
Like... see... Facebook is totally NOT responsible for what other people do with their accounts.
And you can't even imply that Facebook was somehow... I don't know... being criminally negligent with its security.
Just look at how they "purged millions of fake accounts" and that whole 'nother "extensive Facebook scam involving fraudulent "likes" that Facebook said it had disrupted in April".
Surely it's just coincidence that there's a paper out on "collusion networks" of "spammers" and "users"...
A paper outlining the research was first posted Wednesday and will be presented at the Association for Computing Machinery Internet Measurement Conference in London in November. One of the authors is Nektarios Leontiadis, a threat research scientist at Facebook.
...the very same day Facebook comes out about knowingly selling adds to Russian troll factories trying to influence US elections...
Representatives of Facebook told congressional investigators Wednesday that the social network has discovered that it sold ads during the U.S. presidential campaign to a shadowy Russian company seeking to target voters, according to several people familiar with the company's findings.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens