Harold Mansfield
04-06-2013, 11:39 AM
If you use Facebook you see this everyday, meme's that ask you to "like" something to show that you support or don't support it. I've always been suspicious of these because they are obvious attempts to do nothing but build "likes", and most of them are fake, or the facts completely wrong. <br>
They range from memes that take some made up quote and apply it falsely to a familiar face or celebrity, divisive political statements, "Like if you hate cancer", name a city that doesn't have the letter "r" in it, and other mindless panderings. To me, what they are doing is obvious, but apparently not everyone recognizes the dirty underhanded things that people do online.
They seem innocent enough, but what these really are is called "Like farming"....
A Facebook page is created, with an appeal for readers to like, comment or share. The creators, who are working together to build these pages, share it among themselves. They all have big networks, so the pages instantly get into thousands of other people's news feeds. When those people respond with a "like" or a share, then it reaches their friends. Suddenly, the thing has spread faster than a high school rumour.
Then what? Then the people who started it, having quickly acquired tens of thousands of followers, sell the page. Now an advertiser has all those names and Facebook addresses. And that advertiser, who isn't allowed to phone you and whose flyers go straight to your recycling box, is sending you commercial messages on Facebook.
Read more here: http://www.news.com.au/technology/you-like-but-are-inspiring-facebook-posts-real/story-e6frfro0-1226503077666
And it's not just meme's. They go so far as to take pictures from other people's profiles and make up completely false stories about people disappearing and need help, so please share and help us find them, saying people have Down's Syndrome and to share if you think they are beautiful, and so on.
To make a long story short, Facebook is full of spam disguised as honest conversation. Stop "liking" everything.
They range from memes that take some made up quote and apply it falsely to a familiar face or celebrity, divisive political statements, "Like if you hate cancer", name a city that doesn't have the letter "r" in it, and other mindless panderings. To me, what they are doing is obvious, but apparently not everyone recognizes the dirty underhanded things that people do online.
They seem innocent enough, but what these really are is called "Like farming"....
A Facebook page is created, with an appeal for readers to like, comment or share. The creators, who are working together to build these pages, share it among themselves. They all have big networks, so the pages instantly get into thousands of other people's news feeds. When those people respond with a "like" or a share, then it reaches their friends. Suddenly, the thing has spread faster than a high school rumour.
Then what? Then the people who started it, having quickly acquired tens of thousands of followers, sell the page. Now an advertiser has all those names and Facebook addresses. And that advertiser, who isn't allowed to phone you and whose flyers go straight to your recycling box, is sending you commercial messages on Facebook.
Read more here: http://www.news.com.au/technology/you-like-but-are-inspiring-facebook-posts-real/story-e6frfro0-1226503077666
And it's not just meme's. They go so far as to take pictures from other people's profiles and make up completely false stories about people disappearing and need help, so please share and help us find them, saying people have Down's Syndrome and to share if you think they are beautiful, and so on.
To make a long story short, Facebook is full of spam disguised as honest conversation. Stop "liking" everything.