Facebook suspends 16,000 accounts for selling fake reviews

Social media company Facebook Inc suspended 16,000 accounts for selling or buying fake reviews of products and services on its platforms after Britain's competition watchdog intervened for the second time, the regulator said.

U.S.-based Facebook also made further changes to detect, remove and prevent paid content that could mislead users on its platforms, including popular photo-sharing app Instagram, UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said on Friday.

"We have engaged extensively with the CMA to address this issue. Fraudulent and deceptive activity is not allowed on our platforms, including offering or trading fake reviews," a Facebook representative said.

The CMA began a crackdown on false reviews from 2019 when it first asked Facebook and e-commerce platform eBay Inc to check their websites after it found evidence of a growing marketplace for misleading customer reviews on the platforms.