Facebook sues a software developer who automatically adds fake likes to Instagram, what is the aim?

It turned out that Facebook sued a developer of software that automatically puts fake likes on Instagram and a developer of software that extracts personal information from a Facebook account.

Taking Legal Action Against Those Who Abuse Our Services-About Facebook
https://about.fb.com/news/2020/06/automation-software-lawsuits/

Facebook sues to curb data scraping, fake Instagram likes from outside developers
https://www.cyberscoop.com/facebook-instagram-buy-likes-followers/

Facebook Files Suits to Block Unauthorized Automation Software-Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-18/facebook-files-suits-to-block-unauthorized-automation-software-kbkyksve

According to a statement released on June 18, 2020, software developers Mohammad Zaghar and software distributor MGP25 Cyberint Services were sued.

Zaghar is a person who was developing software called Massroot8 that requires a Facebook user name and password and secretly extracts personal information on the page. Massroot8 is said to have obtained usernames and passwords from 5500 Facebook users so far. Mr. Zaghar has received a warning from Facebook in the past and his Facebook account has been suspended, but he said he did not stop extracting personal information.

On the other hand, MGP25 Cyberint Services was selling software that automatically left fake likes and comments on Instagram. By connecting to an actual third-party Instagram account and running the code, the software generated a fake reputation. MGP25 Cyberint Services, like Zaghar, continued to work after receiving a warning from Facebook.

According to a federal court ruling in September 2019, obtaining public data from social media sites does not violate the Computer Crime Control Act. In 2017, startup hiQ Labs was sued for scraping LinkedIn's public information for scraping, but the court has judged that this use is 'no problem'.

The court judges that there is no problem in utilizing LinkedIn's public information in scraping-GIGAZINE

by big-ashb

However, the difference is that hiQ Labs did not collect usernames and passwords, unlike Massroot8.

In recent years, Facebook has filed similar lawsuits in a row, which seems to be aimed at circumventing regulations by sending a message that 'Facebook is not tolerating fraud and is cracking down.'

``If they really care about people's data, they would have sued companies that violated the terms of use in 2005, 2007, and 2010,'' said media scholar Shiva Weidyanassan about Facebook's behavior. 'I said, although not wrong in itself to cause Facebook's lawsuit, called it' one of the strategy ' showed the view .