Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has intensified its crackdown on digital impersonation and spam, announcing the removal of over 10 million fake profiles and 500,000 spam accounts in just six months.
The tech giant disclosed this on Monday in a blog post detailing its new content enforcement strategy for the first half of 2025.
The initiative targets a wide array of bad actors—ranging from fake engagement accounts to those recycling other people’s work without permission or creative input.
“This action is part of our broader effort to reward authenticity and improve content quality across Facebook,” Meta stated.
Accounts found guilty of mass reposting unoriginal content—whether videos, photos, or written posts—will now face penalties such as reduced visibility in user feeds and removal from monetisation programs.
Meta emphasized that simple edits like stitching clips or slapping on a watermark no longer qualify as meaningful content transformation.
“We took action against roughly 500,000 spam accounts and removed over 10 million impersonator profiles posing as popular creators,” Meta said, highlighting a renewed focus on protecting original content and elevating legitimate voices.
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To support this effort, Meta has introduced new tools that link reposted content back to its original source, allowing users and algorithms to more easily identify authentic creators.
Creators will now be able to track how their posts perform via post-level insights added to the Professional Dashboard.
The company also warned against sharing watermarked content taken from other platforms, such as TikTok, indicating that such material may trigger reduced reach or earnings penalties.
These measures follow similar moves by Google’s YouTube, which recently announced that channels producing overly repetitive or low-value content will no longer be eligible for ad revenue.
Initially misunderstood by users as a blanket ban on AI-generated material, YouTube later clarified that creators who use AI to enhance storytelling are still welcome and eligible for monetisation.
“Content that provides real value and tells an authentic story is more likely to succeed,” Meta explained, reinforcing its push for originality over recycled engagement.
Industry watchers see this trend as a broader pivot by tech platforms toward quality control amid rising concerns over misinformation, bot activity, and the monetisation of stolen or AI-repackaged content.
Meta says these policy updates are crucial for maintaining trust, protecting user experience, and ensuring creators are justly rewarded in an increasingly competitive and algorithm-driven ecosystem.
Punch Newspapers
