Facebook has begun deleting fake page "likes", independent data suggests.
According to Pagedata, many of the site's most "liked" pages suffered large drops in numbers on Wednesday. The move follows the social network's admission that 8.7% of its users are not "real", many having been set up by spammers who use them to artificially make pages appear more popular. The issue poses a problem for Facebook as it seeks to expand its targeted advertising service. Facebook's shares have slumped from their initial
public offering of $38 (£23) in May to $20.62 on Thursday.
In a blog post written in August, Facebook said: "A 'like' that doesn't come from someone truly interested in connecting with a page benefits no-one."
Technology news site The Verge, citing Pagedata's statistics, noted that some of the most popular pages on Facebook had suddenly shed significant numbers of users.
The page for Texas HoldEm Poker, one of the site's most popular, shed 96,317 "likes" on Wednesday - compared with net gains of about 20,000 each day for the previous month.