1.3 billion fake accounts taken down from Oct to Dec: Facebook

• Facebook had 35,000 people working on removing these accounts.
• It also removed 12 million pieces of content on COVID-19 misinformation.
• False claims about coronavirus vaccines have proliferated on social media.

As many as 1.3 billion fake accounts were taken down between October to December last year, Facebook said Monday, adding that it had over 35,000 people working on tackling misinformation on its platform.

The company also removed more than 12 million pieces of content about COVID-19 and vaccines that global health experts flagged as misinformation, it said in a blog post.

False claims and conspiracies about the coronavirus vaccines have proliferated on social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, during the pandemic.

Facebook’s disclosure of data on misinformation comes ahead of an inspection by the US House Committee on Energy and Commerce into how technology platforms, including Facebook, are tackling misinformation.