Facebook Is Shutting Down Accounts: Here’s The Reason And Will It Happen In India?

Facebook and its parent company Meta battles multiple issues as rampant disinformation is becoming a serious threat. But the other big problem that needs tackling is the presence of fake accounts. Recently, Meta had reportedly shut down thousands of fake accounts that were created in China but pretending to be Americans.

It is mentioned that the fake accounts were used as vehicles to spread hatred content in the US which goes into presidential elections next year. Catching hold of fake accounts has been a challenge but it seems Meta managed to pick up these fraudsters before they could do some serious damage.

News reports claim Meta had shut down around 4,800 accounts that were operating in disguise as an American were found to be the culprit, set up by some unknown person from China. It is hardly surprising to hear about possible links with the Chinese government but nothing has been confirmed or proven so far.

Instead of spreading fake content as other networks have done, the accounts were used to reshare posts from X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that were created by politicians, news outlets and others.

To appear more like normal Facebook accounts, the network would sometimes post about fashion or pets. Earlier this year, some of the accounts abruptly replaced their American-sounding usernames and profile pictures with new ones suggesting they lived in India. The accounts then began spreading pro-Chinese content about Tibet and India, reflecting how fake networks can be redirected to focus on new targets.

Now, the reports of fake accounts being taken down will definitely bring concerns to other parts of the world, especially India, which also goes into general elections next year.

Meta will have to pull up its socks and gear up for a challenging period as many countries will be battling it out against fake news, misinformation to stoke political tension. We’re hoping the social networking giant takes stern action against these kinds of accounts and continues to monitor the internet for such practices.

(With inputs from AP)