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by shock-value 4900 days ago
Did you read the second part of it (and the article to which it links)? The implication is that Facebook is generating unintended likes for users out of thin air, so to speak. The screenshots provided clearly show what appear to be genuine "likes", not just a misleading juxtaposition. Moreover, it asserts that said users, once notified, were able to go manually "unlike" the content they claimed never to have liked in the first place.

I have no idea if this is actually happening, but if so it's quite a malicious practice on Facebook's part.

1 comments

The likes are recycled. Bob likes an article on a website. Two years later that website advertises with Facebook. Facebook re-use Bob's like, and post the ad.

Some people 'like' a lot of things and might not remember what they've liked; or they may discover something about a previously liked company but not know how to unlike things or etc etc.

Facebook say you can turn off this behaviour. (https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ads&view)

I'm not sure I'd use the word "malicious", but the combinations of obscure settings (how to find the list of liked things; how to unlike things; how to opt out of social ads; etc) is sub-optimal and gives the appearance of sleazy marketing.