Facebook has filed a lawsuit in a US federal court against sellers of fake accounts, likes and followers

Facebook Inc. announced Friday that it has filed a lawsuit against Instagram in a US federal court against four companies and three people based in the People's Republic of China for encouraging the sale of fake accounts, "likes" and followers.

In an article on one of his official blogs, Mark Zuckerberg's firm said that defendants and companies were promoting sales at once Facebook and Instagramas well as other online service providers, such as Amazon, Apple, Google, LinkedIn and Twitter.

The company is asking the court to prevent these companies and individuals from creating and promoting the sale of fake accounts and to prevent the unlawful use of their trademarks on their websites and websites. use of domain names with the Facebook brand to manage these sites.

After a negative reaction to the large amount of "false news" on these social networks, Facebook has taken steps to eliminate fake accounts in the United States and other countries.

It is estimated that more than 600,000 Americans have taken fake accounts of Instagram and Facebook suspected of being linked to Russia. These were detected and eliminated within days of the 2018 US elections.

On the other hand, Facebook announced Tuesday that the option that will allow users to erase all their data will be launched this year.

David Wehner, Facebook's chief financial officer, said at a technology conference at Morgan Stanley Bank that the company was planning to unveil the tool, announced last May as a result of scandals about the company. misuse of user information.

Wehner did not mention any specific dates, but noted that the option "clear history" will be available "later this year".

This tool announced last year will allow users to see which apps and which websites the social network is sending, delete data from their account and prevent Facebook from storing them.

Wehner warned that if users chose to erase their data, this decision would affect the efforts of the social network to achieve targeted advertising. "I think it would be a drag on the ability to have an address as effective as before," he said. "But beyond that, I think we managed to manage that relatively well so far … I would say that the landscape is changing and that the direction that it takes makes more difficult growth and gives less visibility to the will actually develop. "

The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, wrote at the time that the tool to erase the data will imply that users can "clean up their history at any time".

The announcement was made soon after it was revealed that Cambridge Analytica, a consulting firm that had worked for Donald Trump's presidential campaign, had misused data from tens of millions of dollars. Facebook users.

The scandal has led to investigations around the world and is forcing Facebook to review and modify its management of users' personal data.

With information from AFP and Reuters