The Takeover of Fake Reviews and Accounts - Is LinkedIn Really The Only Platform That Tackles Them?

I noticed a quite depressing trend recently. Our social media accounts seem to be less and less safe and secure. I have already written about Meta's problems here, but now it seems like the issue has escalated to a new level.

We spend a lot of time on social media, and we tend to consume a lot of content and ads. In a way, we are all a part of the social media machine, and make companies a lot of money. Yet, they don't seem to be looking after us, the Golden Goose.

So I have gone ahead to do a bit of research on how privacy and fake accounts are handled by each major platform. Here's what I found.

Facebook Hacks

A business acquaintance of mine and someone I have been following closely for over 5 years recently posted this on her page. I thought that I was safe with my password changes, but it seems like it's not the case.

Her personal account got hacked, and - as a result - her business page she's been building up for over a decade got taken over and renamed.

And Facebook didn't want anything to do with it

As you might already know, you cannot really talk to anyone at Facebook. No matter how much money you spend on ads, they send you automated messages only - if you are lucky.

I have also noticed recently Facebook's ads popping up everywhere asking people to "join the No1 social network". Maybe they are pushing the ad so hard because they know that they will not hold that position for long at this rate?

Fake Google Reviews

If you think that Google is doing better, you might be in for a shock. I thought that Google My Business was a good thing as they only allowed registered accounts to leave reviews.

But did it stop people from offering fake reviews? No.

I get at least two of these a week as a message. So far, I haven't found a way to report them to Google, only to block the people - which might be bots anyway - so I am likely to get more.

If you know a way to report these to 谷歌 please let me know.

At LMNts Marketing we are using Google Maps to build our clients' reputation. I would hate to see loads of fake reviews appearing on their competition's map positions. (Not being selfish or anything)

Fake Instagram Accounts

I have already reported on this issue in a previous newsletter .

It seems like the issue hasn't been solved, even got worse.

You can report a post or accounts for only the below reasons:

However, - believe me as I have done this - it is a tedious task when you have loads of followers to remove.

Fake Twitter Accounts

According to What's In Publishing , almost 20 percent of all accounts are spam on Twitter.

You can actually easily spot the fake accounts. This analysis will help.

Source: What's New In Publishing

Considering all that, I am not doing that bad.

TikTok Data Harvesting

The news came out on The Guardian website this July reporting that some cybersecurity experts warned that TikTok users' data could be used by the Chinese government.

As the article states:

TikTok’s data collection methods include the ability to collect user contact lists, access calendars, scan hard drives including external ones and geolocate devices on an hourly basis.

So, if you are using TikTok, make sure that you go through your permissions regularly and never click on the accept button on a privacy notice without reading the small print.

LinkedIn Tackling the Problem

LinkedIn seems to be on top of most of the issues. Of course, it cannot always stay ahead of hackers and software developers, but - at least - it tries.

Recently, it tackled fake accounts, when fake accounts with profile pictures - too symmetrical to be true - started appearing. They were also spreading pro-Kremlin and pro-Donald Trump propaganda. Read the whole story here .

LinkedIn stepped up and removed the access of some bots, such as ProHunter and LIA from the site, as well as the 15 million fake accounts generated by bots. Well done, LinkedIn .

On top of all that, LinkedIn has new challenges to face every day. Embracing transparency, the company regularly publishes updates on their news site about tackling issues. In May this year, for example, their Threat Intelligence Team tackled fake accounts and stopped a company from scraping members' data. Again, well done.

What You Can Do to Protect Yourself

All in all, we have to be more vigilant when using social media. Look at the profiles of people you connect with, change your password regularly, and add extra security layers. It can be a pain in the backside to do so, but it will save you a lot of hassle.

Good luck with your social media journey. Wherever it takes you. Hopefully we will connect here, at the safe place.