Facebook currently released its quarterly record earnings and also announced that they will add another 10,000 employees to invest in security of the website. The reason to the security may be due to the fake news and allegations of Russian propaganda that has been spreading over the platform. After the announcement of increasing security and a lot of extra big spending the company has planned, lead to the value of Facebook's shares dropping 2% shortly after it went up from the Q3 earnings report.
Over 10% of Facebook's 2.07 billion monthly users are estimated to be duplicate
the estimates before this were to only be around 6%. This is quite a big number considering Facebook has a very strict signup and identity verification process where as on sites like Twitter or Twitch all you need is just an email to create an account.
Some are created due to user mistakes but many for spamming and shady networking bots. These bots are often created to fake interaction between Facebook pages.
Source 1 Source 2
While many here on Steemit like to complain about the slow sign up process, I myself am glad that new registrations are carefully considered from being from fake users or emails. Back in the beginning of Steem it was a lot easier to create accounts and obviously the abuse was much higher of fake or clone accounts. I believe its a good decision to early on try and fight these, we've already experienced some form of spam either in comments or voting/following and if there were no borders this could get out of hand quickly.
As I said there are some companies that don't care about the signup process at all as long as the numbers look pleasing to their shareholders, this is a much better method to make sure the growth and activity are as real and natural as possible and it will make for a much healthier platform in the long run.
What are your thoughts on the current signup process and bot networks?
In case you were not aware of, there is now a tool to make it easier to sign up your friends through a low Steem fee and delegation called Steeminvite created by @pharesim.
Bots and Fake-Accounts are a problem to be solved – that's for sure!
But there still is a problem about human infiltration as well, which should be on the future-agenda of steemit also...
A 2 year scheduled social-media-analysis of Munic University of Politics just released its findings today. Not Suprisingly they showed that US-polling-strategists are able to influence the public image of the candidates very well.
See the research in german language here:
http://politicaldatascience.blogspot.pt/p/somefo.html?view=classic
Additionally they found out that in Germany for example the right-wing-populisits are those parties who are most likely to take over the public discourse on social media.
In the same manner data-analysis of twitter detected that some accounts of these nationalist groups are blogging at office opening times only, what reveals them as proffessional politic-influencers.
Find more about this research-project here:
http://digitalpresent.tagesspiegel.de/afd
If Steemit is going to grow further this challenges need to be answered, I think...
Thanks @acidyo for starting this urgent discussion!
@acidyo I am grateful that I do not waste my time on Fakebook anymore. STEEMIT is the place to be and Earn for your Content and Commentary.
I am glad I never got accustomed to being on Facebook and interacting that.
Hence no addiction to break.
Steemit, on the other hand....yes I am addicted.
@taskmaster4450 I am Grateful for you taking the time to reply to my Comment. Interaction with other STEEMIANS is what makes STEEMIT such a Fantastic Place to be.
Thank you @stckjockey
I feel there is not enough commenting on here....too many people read and do not leave a comment that leads to interaction. We all like getting the "nice post" but there isnt much to go on there.
Seldom log in to my Facebook account since I joined Steemit, and there are just so many conspiracies going behind Facebook.
me too broo.
It is a double-edged sword.
People who come over and sign up for steemit usually do so with their peak excitement. When it takes anywhere for a day to a week to get the confirmation, often people forgot about it.
That said, I agree with the process overall. Fake numbers to satisfy Wall Street is something different than we are doing on Steemit. We could care less what Wall Street thinks. I would prefer to have more involved membership base with less overall users.
@taskmaster4450 I second that. We don't care about the current CORRUPT System, we are trying to remove ourselves from that system.
You are 1000% correct. Those who are on here are early adopters of what is becoming the new model that will spread across the Internet. Call it Internet 3.0 or whatever you want, the fact is that tokens are the future and the centralized entities which control the platform is going to end up like the rotary phone.
Steem is just one of the many blockchains which will create an enormous amount of change in the lives of average people. I am starting to buy into the idea that STEEM will ultimately be $1,000 apiece. With all we are seeing at the early stages, it is common sense to believe that things can explode. This blockchain has some great things being developed on them.
We just need to attract people to these apps.
Ofcourse they have many fake accounts. Those are many to marketing and spreading spam messages.
I do agree on signup process to be strict, but it is strict across the board? Singing up through the Steemit website is stirct. But what about using Anonsteem or this new service Steeminvite you? I never used those, so I don't know what process of identification they us.
Then again, when having fake accounts, is not that much of an issue. Service value is not so (or at least shall not so) much be related to the number of accounts, but to the usage of the service, eg active users per day/week/month, active accounts per day/week/month.
Many social media accounts have fake profiles. Fake accounts have been a problem to many social media platforms.
Twitter is one of them with the highest account of bots. Anyway, with special attention to account profiles, they can fish out these fake people.
Not a big deal...FB is short of junkyard. I am not using FB for the last couple of years. I hardly logged in there for few min for some personal info.
No matter what people always like your post even you posted of some sad info .....Grreat waste of time.
Dang! thats such a high number, I didn't realize. I like how Steemit is taking the extra step to limit fake accounts.
It is very obvious of the duplicate or fake account on FB mate! If i take myself for example, since I joined FB 10 years back, i have in all created 4 accounts as the ones before! I wonder how many like me are there on FB!
I am so happy to have found steemit and the long process here is ok as it help in minimizing fake accounts!
there's definately a need to keep spammers/spammer bots out of steemit, so until automated tools are created this sign up process is needed.
some automated processes that maybe should put account requests in front of the line. In other words, not all requests treated equal based on some automated critirea
Nice one, @acidyo. I believe the measures employed by steemit is healthy enough. It goes a long way to show decency on this platform, but the number of bots is becoming alarming. Also, I have to say that, though the security measures here is great, the waiting period to approved new sign ups should be reduced to avoid discouraging real potential users and investors. I don't think the long waiting for approval guarantees enough security checks. The system should be automated. @greatness96
Recently there have been problems with registration in our region. But I'm sure that such measures are necessary to minimize the spread of spam!
Of course ! There are lots of fake accounts and even i know some of them in real life but what to do.
This kind of things made me to leave facebook and join the steemit. Which seems to be best platform for me.
I am glad to be here with you all steemians.
And the point "sign up" process of steemit ,i think it's worth the time.
So no problem with the steemit sign up process ,in my opinion.
Because this will prevent users to create multiple(fake) profiles.
I really agree with you in that paragraph, because the ease of registering an account should be considered again to avoid spam
I used to be mad too at the slow process,but i relaised its a good way of sorting serious users!
The process of approval taking time makes Steemit more legitimate(as it doesn't approve fake emails of just one hour or day old!)
It is also a good way to test people's patience lol!
It is a sorting mechanism of only getting serious people here.
There are times i have had to help people i sign up in Uganda thoroughly check their emails and even sometimes the emails are sent in spam!
I will try this steeminvite service though.
I never trusted facebook. Seems like anything they do has an ulterior motive. I feel the same way about YouTube. Steemit seems to have the right idea.
I would say every social media sites have fake accounts, they are created for various reasons. For example marketing, networking, and fun.
Sites like Steemit must have strict sign up process as well as detection technologies to catch fake users and bots and keep the system running.
There are many programs like Bubblews which were good but just because they were poor in recognizing fake people (spammers) got out of business.
Thanks for your valuable post @acidyo
Facebook died when it became ''Fake''book, started censoring people left and right and became a jail for ideas ! I'm fine with how the Sign Up works right now although it could be faster of course.
I am really glad there is a measure of vesting of accounts at signup on Steemit... especially since the site invites people to become stakeholders. I think we'd see all manners of spam and bad behavior (beyond what we already have) if it were just a free-for-all.
As for Farcebook, that doesn't really surprise me. They really don't check things at all... to wit, on a DAILY basis I get a friend request from some user with a new account that has already been deleted as spam by the time I even try to look at it. And if by some chance it hasn't been deleted, I mark it as spam and it is soon gone. But what sort of verification allowed those users to create an account, in the first place?
Facebook doesnt erase an account, the account continues still you die and then re incarnate and the account of your past life continue in the web.
Welll we know that there r many fack account over Facebook . Most of them are fake and most are of girls profile. Here steemit there are also fake profiles which can act as girls and bot but actually they are not. On came to steemit sign-up it's better then Facebook and many other websites . I like the most about it is with one no only one user are allowed to sign-up and it actually reduce the chances of fake your. Well with time many other bugs will also be eliminated. I like steemit.
Facebook may also admit about the adds in Trump's elections, about which I will sharing :)
Facebook always take money and steemit give money i left the facebook after steemit founded.
Lets steem
@acidyo
Steeeeeeeemit, just Steeeeeeeemit and only Steeeeeeeemit.
I do not care about facebook ;D
me follow and you
Good information @acidyo. Thanks for sharing.
Facebook should have know this long back. They are just admitting it now.
Nice article, I came to know many aspect of making fake id, that I hadn't even though of , specially on fb!
Someone help this red fish grow ☺
When I made my account at Steemit it took 4 days for confirmation, I thought I would not even accept it.
Of course, facebook is full of shit, so any fake account. Am happy to be steeming. Steemit registration process should still be tightened @acidyo
I guess Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms should learn from Steemit, though I know they won't.
Deleted FB app today from my mobile, didn't need it anymore.
super post...I like it re-steem
Just live facebook
there is too many fake account in all social media not only fb but you can now very easy the real and fake account
Your blog is really very nice I follow u plz upvote me
Even when the accounts are "real" the people are fake. :-P
@acidyo - for the time being, I believe steem will have very few fake accounts - though I wouldn't say this is because of the longer time it takes for creation, but rather because it is yet ot be adopted on a mass scale. As long as we have email associated login platforms and as long as people do continue to hold multiple emails, it's fair to assume we will have many with multiple accounts once mass adotion takes place.
Salam
By @said-nuruzzaman
I am not surprised though. I use 3 accounts.Used to have 10+ accounts( lost passwords) and some of my friends used to have 100+...You can simply analyse something from this ..lol
i dont use facebook anymore and i am glad that instead of using facebook i am using steam it...
thanks for sharing this @acidyo
I never trusted facebook. but I really agree with you in that paragraph.
I got approval within first 24 hours but today, may be in some facebook group, I saw one complain about account not approved in 7 days. what is the current timeline of approval?
There's also evidence that facebook is using the microphone on your phone or computer to spy on you and create tailored ads.
I'm glad steemit makes it more difficult to get an account. There's plenty of spam on here as it is, without making it easier.
This post about facebook was very informative More people need to know the circumstances about Facebook there's so much negative advertisement and a great deal of spam. I believe Facebook is changing in a negative way are used to love Facebook but now Facebook is in the past for me steemit is the way to go. I appreciate you taking the time to share Great information
Maybe Steemit could keep out the spammers if each account had a given number of invites to bring in new members. Alot of torrent sites work like this and that is how they keep the quality rather than the quantity of users. Just a thought.
What are you trying to tell me? That all those wonderful girls that want me to come to their website for a camshow are fake? I DON'T BELIEVE YOU!
Okay, really though, Jesus. 10 percent are fake? That is way, way more than I would have ever thought. I can definitely agree that I appreciate the lengthy sign up process here since it deters and makes it more difficult to fabricate accounts. I definitely would get a headache if there was even more spam than what we deal with now, lol.
Also, thanks for the heads up on that signup service! If I ever get lucky enough to actually talk a few more of my friends into joining up on Steemit I'll remember that so I can make it a bit more of a smooth process for them.
Unfortunately, the current systems in place do not prevent bot infiltration into steemit. As far as I can tell it's pretty easy to set up a sizable network of bots for someone who has the funds and motivation to do so, e.g
via direct blockchain apis. At least the incentives/payout systems are designed so that it's not actually economical to e.g. vote with multiple bots vs voting with a single account. However, it's still possible for these bots to spam the system, unless I'm missing something.
You told the matter: natural growth.
Natural, not bot-induced! Whatever it means for me that some people intent to help minnows with bot voting and such, it still kills the most important point: natural increase.
I don't want to be the part of an artificially inflated community and the lack of ability for communication still plagues me.
Something must be done; otherwise, I think registration is OK as it is.