Facebook says it deleted 2.2 billion fake accounts in the first three months of this year. That's a sharp increase from the previous quarter, when 1.2 billion were removed.
Facebook officials attributed the sharp increase to a rise in cyber-attacks by what it called "bad actors who attempt to create large volumes of accounts at one time." They did not touch on the motives behind the attacks, nor whether they are part of an organized effort.
The company says the vast majority of the fake accounts were deleted within minutes of being created, often using artificial intelligence.
The officials also disclosed the number of offensive posts removed in the first quarter.
They say they caught 33 million violent posts, 19 million with sexual content, 6 million praising terrorism and 4 million containing racial or religious hate speech.
NHK
