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In the fourth quarter of 2023, Facebook took action on 691 million fake accounts, down from 827 million in the previous quarter. A record figure of approximately 2.2 billion fake profiles were removed by the social media platform in the first quarter of 2019. Meta considers fake accounts to be those that are created with malicious intent, or created to represent a business, organization, or non-human entity.

Facebook and inauthentic activity

As Facebook is the most used social media platform worldwide it is not surprising that the service is a target for inauthentic activity and potentially harmful content. Facebook's parent company, Meta, has regulations in place known as Facebook Community Standards that outline what is and is not permitted on the network. Spam content is an ongoing issue that the platform faces, with 1.4 million pieces of spam content being removed in the third quarter of 2022.

Facebook’s ongoing popularity

The vast majority of internet users have awareness of Facebook as a brand. Almost all social media users in the United States are aware of Facebook, and three-quarters of U.S. social media users have a Facebook account. Furthermore, despite the idea that Facebook is most popular amongst older generations, its largest U.S. demographic can be found with users aged 25 to 34 years.

Actioned fake accounts on Facebook worldwide from 4th quarter 2017 to 4th quarter 2023 (in millions)

Characteristic	Number of removed fake accounts in millions
2023Q4	691
2023Q3	827
2023Q2	676
2023Q1	426
2022Q4	1,300
2022Q3	1,500
2022Q2	1,400
2022Q1	1,600
2021Q4	1,700
2021Q3	1,800
2021Q2	1,700
2021Q1	1,300
2020Q4	1,100
2020Q3	817.1
2020Q2	791
2020Q1	1,700
2019Q4	1,100
2019Q3	1,700
2019Q2	1,500
2019Q1	2,200
2018Q4	1,200
2018Q3	754
2018Q2	800.3
2018Q1	583
2017Q4	694

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Release date

March 2024

More information

Region

Worldwide

Survey time period

Q4 2017 to Q4 2023

Special properties

fake accounts that were successfully created but later removed by Facebook, does not include unsuccessful attempts to create fake accounts that were blocked at the time of registration

Supplementary notes

According to Facebook, "our goal is to remove as many fake accounts on Facebook as we can. We prioritize enforcement against users and accounts that seek to cause harm and find many of these fake accounts are used in spam campaigns and are financially motivated."

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