A technology platform watchdog group reported Monday that it had found more than 100 Facebook groups, some with tens of thousands of members, where business management accounts are bought and sold in violation of the social network’s rules.
The accounts can be used to run multiple pages and ad campaigns, creating new opportunities for online scams, disinformation, and election interference, according to the investigation by the Tech Transparency Project, a Washington, D.C.-based information and research organization that focuses on the influence of major technology platforms on society.
“For years, Facebook has claimed that its artificial intelligence systems can clean up its platform, but time and time again, we have found that Facebook’s technology is failing to remove harmful content that violates its policies,” the TTP’s director Katie Paul told TechNewsWorld. “This is unfortunately true for this black market for ad accounts as well.”
The TTP explained that business manager accounts allow social media managers and marketers to manage a collection of Facebook ad accounts, Facebook pages, and Instagram accounts from one dashboard. It added that Facebook’s parent company Meta promotes them as a “one-stop shop” for advertising and marketing on its platforms.
The report contended that the accounts are particularly valuable to scammers because business managers can run a series of ad campaigns and easily…
