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Facebook has sued spammers for nearly $2 billion

Facebook has sued spammers for nearly $2 billion

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"We will fight back to prevent abuse on our platform"

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Facebook is in a constant battle against spammers trying to take advantage of its network, and it's been fighting back against them in a number of different ways — including in the courts. In total, Facebook says that it's now "obtained nearly $2 billion in legal judgments" against various spammers. "We utilize these channels when possible to remind would-be offenders that we will fight back to prevent abuse on our platform," Facebook writes in a blog post today.

In particular, Facebook appears to be focused on spammers who sell fake Likes, generally to businesses interested in boosting their popularity. In its post today, Facebook explains that its tools generally make this ineffective — in fact, Facebook says that buying Likes will "do more harm than good" for a business' page. Facebook also says that it has automated systems for detecting fake Likes, and that it'll remove them when caught. Facebook has been on something of a crusade lately to improve the content it displays to you, and highlighting the work it does to ensure that content is genuinely being liked certainly plays in.