Facebook authorities closing down fake accounts, pages: State Minister Tarana

Facebook authorities have started closing down fake accounts and pages created using names of Bangladeshi VIPs, State Minister for Post and Telecommunications Tarana Halim has said.

She confirmed the shutdowns to bdnews24.com on Sunday after many Facebook users found their accounts closed following a verification process.

“We have identified IDs of those who created fake accounts and pages using names of VIPs. Facebook has traced some as well, they are working to close them down,” Tarana told bdnews24.com.

She added that only the ‘fake accounts using VIP names’ had been listed.

The state minister, however, has not mentioned any number but said that there were many.

Earlier on Apr 10, Tarana briefed media that her ministry will soon close down ‘fake Facebook pages’ created by using names of VIPs and members of the parliament.

The fake pages will be filtered out once the real pages of MPs and VIPs are verified, she had said then.

IANS reported on Saturday that after suspending 30,000 fake accounts in France, the social networking giant had disrupted spam operations it had been combating for six months.

In a post, Facebook's Technical Programme Manager Shabnam Shaik said the spam was made up of inauthentic likes and comments that appeared to come from accounts located in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and some other countries.