Fake "likes" The number of "likes" on Facebook can serve as a measurement of interest and/or popularity in a particular brand, product or personality, though there have also been reports of the "overblown importance" of likes. Due to social media's influence in shaping reputations, there exist companies specializing in selling "likes" from fake accounts. This has caused issues for companies advertising on Facebook, due to receiving an abundance of likes without credibility that distort actual user metrics. and it has an ongoing "war" against fake accounts. A May 2015 estimate put the number of fake accounts at 170 million, and a
Symantec study in September 2011 found that 15% of 3.5 million video posts were made through fake likes.
Low reach A content analysis highlights that the "like" reaction is likely to decrease the organic reach of the given Facebook post as a "brake effect". Facebook users often apply this interaction button, perhaps this is why Facebook may use "like" reaction as a negative element in algorithmic content ranking.
Tracking Social network like buttons on websites other than their own are often used as
web beacons to track user activities for
targeted advertising such as behavioral targeting combined with
personally identifiable information, and may be considered a breach of Internet privacy. In June 2010, the
American Civil Liberties Union,
Center for Democracy and Technology, Center for Digital Democracy,
Consumer Action,
Consumer Watchdog,
Electronic Frontier Foundation,
Electronic Privacy Information Center, Privacy Activism, Privacy Lives, and
Privacy Rights Clearinghouse sent an open letter to Facebook requesting that it "Do not retain data about specific visitors to third party sites that incorporate "social plugins" or the "like" button, unless the site visitor chooses to interact with those tools." Multiple governments have also launched investigations into the activity. In September 2010, then-
Privacy Commissioner of Canada Jennifer Stoddart announced new investigations against Facebook, alleging that the like button's appearance outside Facebook violates Canada's privacy laws. In August 2011, the German Data Protection Commissioner's Office ordered federal agencies to stop using Facebook and remove the like button from their websites. In November 2015, the government of Belgium gave Facebook 48 hours to cease tracking people who were not signed into Facebook, or else receive a daily fine of
EUR€250,000, to which Facebook said it would appeal. In its defense, Facebook told
CNET in June 2010 that information on who visited which websites is anonymized after three months, and is not shared with or sold to third parties. In September 2013, a federal appeals court ruled that "likes" are a form of protected speech under the amendment, commenting that "On the most basic level, clicking on the 'like' button literally causes to be published the statement that the User 'likes' something, which is itself a substantive statement. In the context of a political campaign's page, the meaning that the user approves of the candidacy whose page is being liked is unmistakable. That a user may use a single mouse click to produce that message that he likes the page instead of typing the same message with several individual key strokes is of no constitutional significance."
Declining organic reach for company pages In 2014, Social@Ogilvy, a division of the advertising agency
Ogilvy & Mather, published a widely cited
white paper titled "Facebook Zero: Considering Life After the Demise of Organic Reach", documenting Facebook's restriction of
content published from businesses' and brands' Pages. The zero refers to the projected percentage of any given Page's followers, or "Likers", who are able to see posts from that Page in their personal
News Feeds. The paper's author observes that adjustments in Facebook algorithms have reduced
organic reach for non-paying business pages (that have at least 500,000 Likes) from 16 percent in 2012 down to 2 percent in February 2014.
Ability for minors to "like" advertising A lawsuit was filed in 2010 claiming that Facebook should not allow minors to "like" advertising. Facebook said the suit was "completely without merit".
Intimate user details Research shows that Facebook likes can be automatically processed to infer intimate details about an individual, such as sexual orientation, political and religious views, race, substance use, intelligence, and personality. Effectively, individual views and preferences can be revealed even if they were not directly expressed or indicated by liking associated content.
"Surfbook" legal action In February 2013, legal action was brought against Facebook by patent-holding company Rembrandt Social Media. Rembrandt owns several patents taken out by Dutch programmer Joannes Jozef Everardus van der Meer, who died in 2004. These include patents filed in 1998 relating to Van der Meer's fledgling social network
Surfbook, including, according to legal papers filed by the patent holder, the ability for users to approve data using a "like" button.
Limited geographical reach of "Pride" reaction In June 2017, in celebration of
Pride month, Facebook introduced a rainbow flag as part of its Reactions options. This sparked debate, with Jillian York of
Vices
Motherboard writing that "If Facebook's goal is to make the world more open and connected, it could start by treating queer communities with equality", In a blog post, Facebook stated that the different levels of access was necessary "because this is a new experience we've been testing", although user feedback has questioned this line of thinking by pointing to earlier temporary reactions, including dedicated Halloween and Mother's Day reactions, that were available to all users despite not everyone celebrating. ==See also==