After four weeks, about 80 percent of the fake clicks remained, the researchers said. And virtually all of the accounts that had been used to generate the clicks remained active three weeks after researchers reported them to the companies. Image Researchers inflated the “likes” on a Facebook post by Margrethe Vestager, Europe’s top antitrust enforcer. But the report also brings renewed attention to an often overlooked vulnerability for internet platforms: companies that sell clicks , likes and comments on social media networks. “We spend so much time thinking about how to regulate the social media companies — but not so much about how to regulate the social media manipulation industry,” said Sebastian Bay, one of the researchers who worked on the report.

Source: New York Times December 06, 2019 04:52 UTC