USA Today’s parent company has asked the FBI to investigate its likes on Facebook after a slew of fake accounts followed the newspaper on the social media site, USA Today reports.
Facebook recently removed millions of those fake accounts, approximately half of USA Today’s 15.2 million Facebook followers, the newspaper said.
"After we identified the additional set of violating accounts, we notified our partners at USA Today, and are taking action against these accounts," Shabnam Shaik, a technical program manager on Facebook's protect and care team, said in a statement.
"We don’t know why the scope of impact on USA Today’s Facebook Page appears greater than any other publisher," said Shaik.
Fake accounts and the spread of fake news has become an increasing problem for Facebook, specifically during the election cycle, and the social media site has made a conscious effort to stymie the flow of fake news on its site.
USA Today has been a main target for spam operators – in April when Facebook purged 200 million fake accounts, 12 million were from USA Today and affiliates.
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