脸书：我们有12%的账号是假账号或小号

脸书上周三发布的财报虽然惊艳，其中不乏一些令人警惕的信息——脸书上的假账号和重复账号要远远多于该公司此前承认的数量。

首先，脸书上有多达10%的月活跃账号是重复账号。根据脸书CFO大卫·M·韦纳的定义，所谓重复账号是指“由同一人在脸书上进行真实活动的账号”。不过韦纳也披露，脸书上还有2%至3%的账号是“虚假账号”，主要用于“发送垃圾信息或其他违反政策用途”。

据《商业内幕》报道，此次脸书披露的重复账号和虚假账号的比例，要高于该公司此前6%和1%的预估。韦纳表示，此次披露的数据是基于一种新的衡量方法计算的，这也就是说，脸书此前确实低估了重复账号和虚假账号的数量。

换句话来说，以脸书20.7亿的月活跃用户总基数计算，该平台上足有6000万个账号是彻头彻尾的假账号。

此次华尔街对脸书财报的反应不一，或许也与这一原因有关。虽然脸书的收益跑赢了预期，但其股价却出现了下跌，部分原因或许是由于该公司计划明年显著提高支出。

脸书CEO马克·扎克伯格表示，增加的支出有一部分会“集中用于寻找行为不良者和相关恶劣行为”——也就是会用于删除假新闻和仇恨言论等等，而这些不良内容有不少就是通过假账号传播的。扎克伯格表示，虽然这些努力会“显著影响我们的利润”，但是毕竟“保护我们的社区比利润最大化更重要”。

当然，脸书在网络安全和内容审查上的投资，归根结底还是为了保护公司的长期盈利。众所周知，最近一段时间，脸书、谷歌、推特这三个难兄难弟因为涉嫌在2016年总统大选期间传播了涉俄假新闻，正在受到国会的严厉问责。如果脸书不能自己解决假新闻的问题，等到官方插手施压，给脸书套上重重枷锁，则只会给公司利润产生更大的损害。（财富中文网）

译者：贾政景

Facebook’s excellent earnings report on Wednesday came with a significant caveat – the social media platform has far more fake and duplicate accounts than it had previously admitted.

As many as 10% of the accounts active each month on Facebook are duplicates, which Facebook CFO David M. Wehner defined as accounts “used by the same person [which] represent real activity and engagement on Facebook.” But Wehner also disclosed that another 2-3% of accounts are “inauthentic accounts” used “for spam and other policy violating reasons.”

Those levels are up from Facebook’s previous estimates of 6% for duplicate accounts and 1% for fake accounts, according to Business Insider. Wehner said the updates were made based on a new measurement methodology, suggesting Facebook had previously undercounted the duplicates and fakes.

With a total monthly userbase of 2.07 billion, the new numbers suggest as many as 60 million Facebook accounts could be entirely fake.

Those numbers are central to Wall Street’s mixed reaction to the earnings report. Though revenue beat expectations, Facebook’s shares have fallen, in part because of stated plans to significantly increase spending in 2018.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said some of that spending will be “focused on finding bad actors and bad behavior,” including removing false news stories and hate speech, much of which is hosted or amplified through fake or otherwise deceptive accounts. Zuckerberg said the efforts would “significantly impact our profitability going forward,” and that “protecting our community is more important than maximizing our profits.”

Of course, Facebook’s investment in security and screening is more accurately described as an effort to protect profits in the long term. The company, along with Google and Twitter, are currently facing tough questions from Congress over the role of social media in spreading Russian disinformation during the 2016 Presidential election. Failure to quash that phenomenon on its own terms could see Facebook eventually saddled with onerous regulations that could do even more damage to the bottom line.