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Facebook Fraud 2.0: Academic Study Exposes "Like Farms"
Six months ago the topic of click fraud at Facebook hit the headlines but was rapidly dismissed as the company's share price rose implying that the world is great and we should not worry. With Facebook increasingly becoming the advertising outlet of choice for many of the world's companies, MIT Technology Review reports on a study to dig deeper into just where the "likes" come from. As the authors note, recently, the number of likes of a Facebook page has become a measure of its popularity and profitability, and an underground market of services boosting page likes, aka "like farms," has emerged. While careful to avoid pointing the finger too aggressively, the findings show that one "like" is not like another as the use of "honeypot" pages to generate "likes" attracts 'users' (bots) that are significantly different from typical Facebook users (i.e. non-human money-spending users).
As MIT Technology Review notes,
Whenever there is a new product to test, a service to announce or event to promote, many organisations turn to Facebook to post news of the development.
To enable this, Facebook allows users to create pages devoted to specific topics. Visitors can then “like” the page and then receive updates about the topic as well as connect with others with similar interest. The number of likes is therefore an important measure of the popularity of the page and there is considerable prestige in having many likes.
That is handy for Facebook which allows businesses to promote their pages using adverts targeted at certain groups of users who may be interested in the content. It is possible, for example, to target people with specific interests or those who live in the US and so on. These ads are a major source of income for Facebook.
However there is another way to promote Facebook pages. In recent years, a secret industry has emerged that sells likes to anyone willing to pay. These paid services inflate the interest in a Facebook page using “like farms” that generate likes on demand. Little is known about these services or how they generate likes. In particular, nobody is quite sure whether the likes come from automated bots or from paid human workers.
Today, Emiliano De Cristofaro from University College London and a few pals around the world provide the first systematic investigation into the nature of like farms and how they operate.
As the authors conclude:
We stress that our findings do not necessarily imply that advertising on Facebook is ineffective, since our campaigns were specifically designed to avert real users.
However, our work provides strong evidence that likers attracted on our honeypot pages, even when using legitimate Facebook campaigns, are significantly different from typical Facebook users, which confirms the concerns about the genuineness of these likes.
We also show that most fake likes exhibit some peculiar characteristics – including demographics, likes, temporal and social graph patterns – that can and should be exploited by like fraud detection algorithms.
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Allocate your Ad Spend accordingly...
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So I am not really popular?!?!?!?!?!? (jumps through window)
When something becomes valuable, people counterfit. Fed's been doing it since 1913.
OMG!
I plan my entire life around FakeBook and likes, ya know?
I choose what to wear each morning by getting up 6 hours early and modeling various outfits - like many do - and choose one based on 'likes.''
So this fake liking really has me spooked - what if my purple furry fedora has been keeping me from the C-Suite?
Is there anything in our world that is genuine and real, other than a 50-year old spinsters' love for her cats?
Just think of it as HFT's for social media... If it can be manipulated it WILL be manipulated.
I can't wait until the day that Failbook becomes obsolete and no one uses it anymore, and it crashes and burns!
Facebook And It’s Connections To The C.I.A. And D.A.R.P.A.
'Tis true
Nah... it's all rigged. The whole Matrix is rigged.
The "r" word...riggers. Fuckin' riggers.
Uh ... think that's "raggers," HB.
DARPA funded Facebook under fire from Euro regulators for revealing massive facial recognition database
Yeah, just like your CALPERS pension.
How about that parity you keep touting?
How about that bubble that never was?
You broken record you.
Facebook & Google are CIA Fronts
@frenzic
Oh, I owe you some kind of explanation?
The fuck I do.
The mega-rally isn't on anyone's schedule, and the timing this part of the cycle hasn't even begun yet. But keep on shitting on Bitcoin, even though PayPal thinks its a worthwhile investment.
There's no pleasing you trolls, so go ahead, call it "dead" a few more times, I'll just come back in a year and eat your lunch for you, "alpha" chaser.
You gotta love how they call it "social media"...and yet, every Farcebook addict I see, is usually absorbed in their phone, busy "liking" dumb crap someone else posted.
"Like", if you agree </sarc>
We just "Liked" you. Was it good for you?
@ TeamDepends:
Cool! Friend request sent! Soon, I'll be posting some cat pictures, followed by a random post about what I ate for dinner, and a link to a really awesome deal on the new iPhone.
By "cat" you mean cat, right?
No. He meant cat.
woodycat
pussy cat?
Yes?
I just fake liked you. Don't get too excited.
I upvoted you Croesus. Does that count as a "like"?
And this article surprises who?
FarceBook?
A video summing it up nicely.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVfHeWTKjag
aww fuckbook
FaceFuck
There is a joke going around that's kinda similar to how the Fuddruckers name changed over time in Idiocracy. It says that eventually youtube, twitter and facebook will become one and be called YouTwitFace
Listen.
I know you have a dis-like farm here on "THE HEDGE". Rabid anti-Bangalorians! Piss off!
At least you could use a "Pet Rock" to hold down some papers.
I despise Facebook with a passion that I can't quite put into words.
Luddite.
That's a tag of honor.
I concur.
I'm not on it myself, but my dog is. I live, LIVE for the day when she gets a credit card in the mail...she loves buying Berkey water filters, Silver, and all kinds of ammunition. Good pup. Treat!
FaceBook cancelled my cat's account because his cell phone didn't have texting.
But everyone KNEW it was an ironic, tongue-in-cheek fad, a joke, a hoot. No one took the PR seriously. It was all in good, silly, fun.
I'm paying $100 for every thumbs up I get on this post.
You're going to write "$100" on a piece of paper, scan it, then email it out aren't you?
Yeah, a FRN. Just like he said.
FAKEBOOK
I think that sometime in the future, when most of here are dead and gone, Facebook will be remembered somewhat like I remember Amway and other similar scams in the 60-70-80's. Sure they were "legit" and some people made money but they were still "frauds" in my opinion.
I never sold Amway, nor have I ever belonged to Facebook. I mean Facebook is just stupid[to me] on the face of it! :)
I still haven't gotten around to signing up for Facebook and seeing what it's about. Maybe next year.
One particular "Like farm" seems to be located at 1000 Colonial Farm Rd., McLean, Virginia.
An American, not US subject.
"Please 'Like' my guillotine."
For these ad revenue based web sites, doesn't somebody eventually have to actually purchase what is being advertised? How can FB be worth even a fraction of what it is valued at?
You just don't understand the value of page impressions.
In full disclosure, I don't either. I'm supposed to in my line of work but I have this pesky habit of equating advertising dollars with actual sales. But some asshole at a PR firm keeps telling me that putting an ad somewhere on a webpage will lead to millions in sales.
Hmm, Don't know what Ablesys is. Demark Prime? Tampons? I'm a guy. A fucking Home Depot ad in Spanish, I DON'T SPEAK SPANISH!
Wow, those internet ads sure did the trick while I was typing this reply.
So what happens when a sufficient number of Facebook's advertisers decide to say:
"Fuck it, these 'likes' are bullshit. We don't know who, if anyone, is looking at our shit, etc. etc....."
What happens to Facebook's top/bottom line? Who would need those fucks?
the krowten effect
Please explain, Cthonic. When I do a search for "krowten", I get links to your post and to, well, a bunch of Facebook pages.
... network spelled backwards ...
(slaps self upside head)
<< Who would need those fucks?>>
Nobody.
Let those FB advertisers enter the Matrix.
Isn't this from the smarmy little troll that hid in his dorm and humiliated innocent college girls for fun and profit with FaceSmash or FaceBash or whatever? The Winklevoss twins should have just pounded his ass when they had the chance but they were probably at a fundraiser for Raytheon like normal kids from Harvard.
Hard to say which of them is the most distasteful. In a perfect world they'd have litigated each other into the ground, and the whole thing would have disappeared quietly years ago.
normal kids from Harvard?
wtf
As long as something likes me. I can dance. I can fly. Look mom no hands. Something doesn't sound right.
You mean people are willing to pay money to have their status updates liked? That's just sad.
Fake likes, fake page views, fake everything.
Have a phone? Well it comes loaded with the Facebook app, which has one or more services connected to Facebook. Even if you delete the app you probably still have other apps that have social connect functions which link to Facebook.
Guess what Facebook counts when they talk about daily users connecting to Facebook. Even if you don't post a thing, your phone's connection to Facebook counts as a daily connection.
This is how Facebook keeps increasing mobile user numbers, it's all bullshit.
Facebook activity has slowed to a crawl. People just aren't using it anymore. Call it narcissism fatigue. The only posts left are those of the self absorbed variety. Nobody gives a shit after seeing the same person post an airplane wing after the hundredth time. There is nothing more sociopathic than the selfie obsession.
What was a cool tool to keep in touch with family and friends became the latest I'm better than you because I did or have this fad.
add in all the pages that were created years ago and the people never logged out even though they have not been to the site since they created it. that also counts a connection.
That would describe my Failbook profile. Made one 3 or 4 years ago to keep in touch with old friends, and haven't logged in months because it's just selfie crap and mood swings, or internet memes you see on other forums anyway.
I wish Failbook would die like the old myspace.
FUCK FACEBITCH.
You can get rich in your spare time as a click fraud gum shoe...
We know it's a fraud.
FB knows it's a fraud.
Wall Street knows it'd a fraud.
And the stock still rises on yet more implausible FB horseshit numbers.
Ergo - serious money and insider vested interests are committed to keeping this fraud levitated
The HFT bots don't know the whole thing is fake, but they will continue selling to one another making FB go to the stratosphere.
Their stock tripled in the past year with no fundamentals whatsoever.
Meanwhile silver bullion is flying off the shelves yet it's price is a falling knife.
It's going to suck when the tune stops in this game of musical chairs.
I'm thinking gojob360 is a site that encourages women to do nude webcam shows
keep in mind that companies are actually equating "likes" to ROI.
"Tis not unlike how I measure my blessings by the smiles of the little ones when receiving a wee piece of bread at the 4:15 A.M. break period here at the Factory of the Lord!"
- Sister Mary Mother-of-God-Almighty-Help-Us-Jesus-In-Our-Hour-of-Financial-Need Schmidt
Phd, Theology/Finance/Sales
Factory of the Lord, Inc.,
Irvine/ Vietnam/ London/ Bangladesh
faceplant
>> like Likes.
>> a kitten dies.
Oh, so it is based on voting bots?
Is this what happened in Scotland?
Facebook? Never heard of him.
FB is waaaay too important to current events. Mr. Zuckerberg does not run FB anymore. He is busy playing with all his glitzy expensive toys while his "handlers" manage the business. The whole effing thing is a gigantic honey pot for the TLAs and their sycophants.
The really shitty thing about this whole FB business is that absence from it can be just as damning as presence on it. So, basically, damned if you do and damned if you don't.
When you go on FB stick with the "cat" pictures.
So put your farm on face book ? like farms ? POW! just blew my own mind!
FWIW, here's an interesting "comment" under the MIT Technology Review article sourced in this thread:
GeeDeezy 1 day ago
The author has not done his/her homework, re: these opening statements:
"Little is known about these services or how they generate likes."
and
"In particular, nobody is quite sure whether the likes come from automated bots or from paid human workers."
There are articles all over the internet about a) how these farms work and b) how well FaceBook has gotten at algorithmically determining fake or paid-for likes.
This article is clickbait.
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Conversation powered by LivefyreAnyone who has had a close friend or relative die,knows that facebook likes are a nonsense. Their likes keep getting posted long after they are deceased.
"Like farms" are just sock puppets on crack. The internet and sock puppeting have been around for a while.
There is nothing new under the sun.