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    Facebook reports that 8.7 percent of its user accounts may be phony

    Facebook reports that 8.7 percent of its user accounts may be phony

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    Facebook reports that 8.7 percent of its 950 million monthly active users are in violation of its terms of service, operating duplicate or fake accounts.

    By Nate Ralph

    Via CNN | Source Facebook SEC Filing

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    In an SEC filing released on Wednesday, Facebook revealed that approximately 8.7 percent of its 950 million monthly active user accounts are duplicates, spammers or not actually human beings. That's roughly 83 million phony accounts, with incidences being slightly higher in developing markets like Turkey and Indonesia. CNN reports that Facebook is actively tracking users who violate the social network's terms of service and shutting those accounts down.

    According to the filing, approximately 4.8 percent of Facebook's monthly active user-base are duplicate accounts — cases where Facebook believes someone is maintaining extra user profiles under a pseudonym. Another 2.4 percent consist of misclassified accounts — profiles for companies or pets that have yet to be converted into Facebook Pages. Then there's 1.5 percent of undesirable accounts, managed by spammers. Those numbers might not look like much, but Facebook relies on that monthly active user data to keep track of its growth, and (more importantly) to sell the advertising that fills its coffers.

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