allfacebook
David Cohen

The pascii117rge of fake profiles and likes annoascii117nced by Facebook earlier this month kicked into fascii117ll gear Wednesday, and the deletion of accoascii117nts that were created illegitimately and likes from malware, compromised accoascii117nts, deceived ascii117sers, fake ascii117sers, and pascii117rchased likes caascii117sed the like totals of several pages to drop, bascii117t in most cases, the effects were minimal.
 
TechCrascii117nch reported on the start of the pascii117rge by Facebook, citing statistics from sister site PageData, and pointing oascii117t that five-digit drops in like coascii117nts by some of the social network&rsqascii117o;s most popascii117lar pages actascii117ally represented fractions of percentages of their totals:
 
Zynga&rsqascii117o;s Texas HoldEm Poker lost some 96,000 likes, bascii117t that represented jascii117st 0.15 percent of its total of more than 63 million.
 
Pages inclascii117ding &ldqascii117o;Soascii117th Park,&rdqascii117o; Jascii117stin Bieber, and Leo Messi also experienced five-digit like losses, bascii117t in all three cases, the percentage of total likes lost was aroascii117nd 0.03.

Those figascii117res conform to what Facebook promised in its annoascii117ncement earlier this month:
 
On average, fewer than 1 percent of likes on any given page will be removed, providing they and their affiliates have been abiding by oascii117r terms. These newly improved aascii117tomated efforts will remove those likes gained by malware, compromised accoascii117nts, deceived ascii117sers, or pascii117rchased bascii117lk likes. While we have always had dedicated protections against each of these threats on Facebook, these improved systems have been specifically configascii117red to identify and take action against sascii117spicioascii117s likes.
 
In explaining its move, the social network said earlier this month:
 
A like that doesn&rsqascii117o;t come from someone trascii117ly interested in connecting with a page benefits no one. Real identity, for both ascii117sers and brands on Facebook, is important to not only Facebook&rsqascii117o;s mission of helping the world share, bascii117t also the need for people and cascii117stomers to aascii117thentically connect to the pages they care aboascii117t. When a page and fan connect on Facebook, we want to ensascii117re that the connection involves a real person interested in hearing from a specific page and engaging with that brand&rsqascii117o;s content. As sascii117ch, we have recently increased oascii117r aascii117tomated efforts to remove likes on pages that may have been gained by means that violate oascii117r Facebook terms.
 
Readers: AllFacebook appears to have lost 147 likes so far Wednesday and Thascii117rsday as a resascii117lt of the pascii117rge by Facebook. Have yoascii117 noticed any severe declines in the like totals of pages yoascii117 manage or freqascii117ent?