Teh One Who Knocks
08-02-2012, 04:58 PM
By Chloe Albanesius - PC Magazine
Facebook now has more than 950 million monthly active users (MAUs), but are they all real people? According to data released in financial filings this week, about 8.7 percent of Facebook accounts are duplicates, mis-classified, or "undesirable," the social network said.
That works out to about 83 million accounts that are either trying to spam you, in violation of Facebook's rules, or are just confused.
Specifically, about 4.8 percent of the 950 million MAUs are duplicate accounts, or an additional account that someone has in addition to their main profile. While this might seem like no big deal, it is actually in violation of Facebook's terms of service and the social network says it works to "detect and suppress such behavior."
Meanwhile, another 2.4 percent of accounts are known as mis-classified - like using a Page usually reserved for businesses or political candidates as a main, personal Profile.
Finally, 1.5 percent are undesirable, or those that are used for nefarious purposes, like spamming.
Facebook said that incidents of duplicate and false accounts are "meaningfully lower" in developed regions like the U.S. and Australia and higher in developing markets like Indonesia and Turkey.
"However, these estimates are based on an internal review of a limited sample of accounts," Facebook said, so the estimation "may not accurately reflect the actual number of such accounts."
Facebook said its metrics are also affected by apps on mobile devices that automatically contact Facebook's servers without user intervention. This could cause Faecbook to erroneously count that user as active when they are not. The social network estimated that less than 5 percent of daily active users at the end of 2010 and 2011 were affected by this type of activity.
The company also admitted that an algorithm error discovered in June 2012 was affecting how the geographic location of its users was being reported. As a result, the number of MAUs as of March 31, 2012 was probably overstated by about 3 percent in the U.S. and Canada, Facebook said, and understated in other regions.
Facebook now has more than 950 million monthly active users (MAUs), but are they all real people? According to data released in financial filings this week, about 8.7 percent of Facebook accounts are duplicates, mis-classified, or "undesirable," the social network said.
That works out to about 83 million accounts that are either trying to spam you, in violation of Facebook's rules, or are just confused.
Specifically, about 4.8 percent of the 950 million MAUs are duplicate accounts, or an additional account that someone has in addition to their main profile. While this might seem like no big deal, it is actually in violation of Facebook's terms of service and the social network says it works to "detect and suppress such behavior."
Meanwhile, another 2.4 percent of accounts are known as mis-classified - like using a Page usually reserved for businesses or political candidates as a main, personal Profile.
Finally, 1.5 percent are undesirable, or those that are used for nefarious purposes, like spamming.
Facebook said that incidents of duplicate and false accounts are "meaningfully lower" in developed regions like the U.S. and Australia and higher in developing markets like Indonesia and Turkey.
"However, these estimates are based on an internal review of a limited sample of accounts," Facebook said, so the estimation "may not accurately reflect the actual number of such accounts."
Facebook said its metrics are also affected by apps on mobile devices that automatically contact Facebook's servers without user intervention. This could cause Faecbook to erroneously count that user as active when they are not. The social network estimated that less than 5 percent of daily active users at the end of 2010 and 2011 were affected by this type of activity.
The company also admitted that an algorithm error discovered in June 2012 was affecting how the geographic location of its users was being reported. As a result, the number of MAUs as of March 31, 2012 was probably overstated by about 3 percent in the U.S. and Canada, Facebook said, and understated in other regions.