Oladele Oduniyi
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has announced the removal of 500,000 accounts for spam and fake engagement in the first half of 2025 as part of efforts to clean up its platform and boost visibility for original creators.
The company said it also took down nearly 10 million fake profiles impersonating popular content creators within the same period.
“We’re making progress,” Meta stated in a blog post on Monday. “In the first half of 2025, we took action on around 500,000 accounts engaged in spammy behaviour or fake engagement, applying measures ranging from demoting comments and reducing the distribution of content to blocking these accounts from monetising. We also took down around 10 million profiles impersonating large content producers.”
Meta is also introducing stricter measures against accounts that recycle or repost content without permission or meaningful edits. Such accounts will not only lose monetisation privileges but will also see reduced reach on Facebook feeds.
According to Meta, sharing unoriginal content repeatedly—whether videos, photos, or text—makes it harder for new voices to gain visibility. The company is testing tools to link duplicated content back to the original post, ensuring authentic creators receive credit for their work.
Meta noted that pages and profiles posting mostly original content typically enjoy wider reach across Facebook, while simply stitching clips together or adding watermarks will no longer qualify as meaningful editing.
Content that tells authentic stories and offers real value is more likely to perform well under the new rules, the company added. It also warned that posting watermarked material from other platforms could lead to reduced reach and monetisation penalties.
As part of these updates, Meta has introduced post-level insights on the Professional Dashboard to help creators track performance and added a feature on the Support Home screen to alert creators if their posts or earnings face potential restrictions.
Meanwhile, YouTube has announced a policy preventing mass-produced or overly repetitive content from earning ad revenue. The move sparked confusion among some users, who feared it would affect AI-generated content. However, YouTube clarified that the policy targets spammy, low-effort uploads and not creators using AI to enhance their storytelling.
“We welcome creators using AI tools to enhance their storytelling, and channels that use AI in their content remain eligible to monetize,” YouTube said in a statement.