After YouTube, Meta crackdowns on 'unoriginal content'; removes 10 million fake Facebook profiles

In one of its largest crackdowns to date, Meta has removed more than 10 million fake Facebook profiles in a single month, signaling a renewed commitment to curb spam and deceptive content on its platform. The company revealed the action as part of a broader push to ensure the authenticity and integrity of content, particularly in the lead-up to major elections around the world.

"We believe that creators should be celebrated for their unique voices and perspectives, not drowned out by copycats and impersonators," Meta said in its blog.

Read more: YouTube's monetisation crackdown divides creator economy; praise for originality push, but payout concerns loom

But there’s more to do, it said. Too often the same meme or video pops up repeatedly ‑ sometimes from accounts pretending to be the creator and other times from different spammy accounts. It dulls the experience for all and makes it harder for fresh voices to break through.

To improve users Feed, the platform is introducing stronger measures to reduce unoriginal content on Facebook and ultimately protect and elevate creators sharing original content.

"Unoriginal content reuses or repurposes another creator's content repeatedly without crediting them, taking advantage of their creativity and hard work.

We love it when creators reshare content, add commentary in a reaction video or join in on a trend, adding their unique take. What we want to combat is the repeated reposting of content from other creators without permission or meaningful enhancements," Meta said.

The blog mentions that Meta now is introducing stronger measures to combat this behavior on Facebook.

"Accounts that improperly reuse someone else’s videos, photos or text posts repeatedly will not only lose access to Facebook monetization programs for a period of time, but will also receive reduced distribution on everything they share."

Read more: YouTube cracks down on repetitive content: Monetisation only for original creators from July 15

In addition, if its systems detect duplicate videos on Facebook, it will reduce the distribution of the copies so that original creators can get the visibility that they deserve.

"We’re also exploring ways to provide proper attribution to creators. For example, we're testing adding links on duplicate videos that point viewers to the original piece of 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.

It is to be noted that last week, YouTube too had announced a change in policy that prevents content that is mass-produced or repetitive from being eligible for being awarded revenue.