News Round-up: Facebook Under Fire

August 6, 2012

Stay tuned for our Monday round-ups of the latest social media news. We will be providing short, sweet snippets that will help you stay ahead of the ever-changing social media game. Here’s the first in the series… Enjoy.

Last week saw the shock revelation that 8.7% or 83 million Facebook accounts are fake, meaning the 955 million active users would be downgraded 872 million. Of this figure 4.8% are duplicate accounts, 2.4% are misclassified accounts and 1.5% are spam accounts.

Further negative press resulted from claims that online company Limited Run made against the platform. They alleged that bots were responsible for 80 percent of click-throughs from their Facebook adverts. Facebook has been forced to launch an investigation.

But the story doesn’t end here. Limited Run also accused Facebook of trying to charge them for changing their name (formerly known as Limited Pressing). Facebook have since stated it was a ‘miscommunication’ issue but Limited Run has already taken its business elsewhere to rival Twitter. You can read more here.

This plethora of accusations has further fuelled the fire already burning with regards to the credibility and value of Facebook adverts. Furthemore, the influence of other platforms such as Twitter and Google+ are ever increasing. Facebook still leads with 90% of the 100 major global brands active on its platform, but 70% now present on Google+ and 80% are represented on Twitter.

These controversies have all accumulated at a difficult time for Facebook, as its share price continues to plummet. Mark Zuckerberg has fallen out of the top 10 technology billionaires as his personal wealth shrinks by $423 million.

However, amidst all this negative press, a new product has been developed by McAfee which aims to make our Facebook experience one that is increasingly safe and secure. This new product, called ‘Social Protection’ allows Facebook users to control who can and cannot see their photos, also preventing people from downloading pictures by blurring the photos.

Until next week…

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