Facebook Says Sues 4 Chinese Companies, 3 Individuals Over Promoting Fake Accounts Sale

IT company Facebook and Instagram, belonging to it, have filed a lawsuit against four Chinese-based entities and three individuals over bolstering the sale of fake accounts, likes and followers, Facebook has said

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd March, 2019) IT company Facebook and Instagram, belonging to it, have filed a lawsuit against four Chinese-based entities and three individuals over bolstering the sale of fake accounts, likes and followers, Facebook has said.

"Today, Facebook and Instagram filed a lawsuit in US Federal court against four companies and three people based in the People's Republic of China for promoting the sale of fake accounts, likes and followers ... By filing the lawsuit, we hope to reinforce that this kind of fraudulent activity is not tolerated - and that we'll act forcefully to protect the integrity of our platform," the company said in a statement on Friday.

The IT giant added that apart from Facebook and Instagram, the suspected companies and individuals operated on other online services, including Amazon, Apple, Google, LinkedIn and Twitter.

The lawsuit aims to bar the people and entities from creating fake accounts and promoting their sales; infringing on Facebook's and Instagram's intellectual property; and so-called cybersquatting, which means using Facebook-branded domain Names for their websites.