Meta removes 10 million Facebook profiles in effort to combat spam
The crackdown is part of Meta's broader effort to make the Facebook Feed more relevant and authentic by taking action against and removing accounts that engage in spammy behavior, such content created using artificial intelligence tools.
As part of that initiative, Meta is also rolling out stricter measures to promote original posts from creators, the company said in a blog post.
Facebook also took action against approximately 500,000 accounts that it identified to be engaged in inauthentic behavior and spam. These actions included demoting comments and reducing distribution of content, which are intended to make it harder for these accounts to monetize their posts.
Meta said that unoriginal content is when images or videos are reused without crediting the original creator. Meta said it now has technology that will detect duplicate videos and reduce the distribution of that content.
The action against spam and inauthentic content comes as Meta increases its investment in AI, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday announcing plans to spend "hundreds of billions of dollars" on AI compute infrastructure to bring the company's first supercluster online next year.
This mandate comes at a time when AI is making it easier to mass-produce content throughout social media platforms. Other platforms are also taking action to combat the increase of spammy, low-quality content on social media, also known as "AI slop."
Google's YouTube announced a change in policy this month that prevents content that is mass-produced or repetitive from being eligible for being awarded revenue.
This announcement sparked confusion on social media, with many users believing this was a reversal on YouTube's stance on AI content. However, YouTube clarified that the policy change is aimed at curbing unoriginal, spammy and repetitive videos.
"We welcome creators using AI tools to enhance their storytelling, and channels that use AI in their content remain eligible to monetize," said a spokesperson for YouTube in a blog post to clarify the new policy.
YouTube's new policy change will take affect on Tuesday.
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