Today, Facebook revealed that is has disabled around 583 million fake accounts in the first three months of 2018. For context, that’s about a quarter of the social network’s entire user base. Around 6.5 million fake accounts were created every day in the first 3 months of 2018. Luckily, most of these spam accounts were automatically disabled within just minutes of registration.
Facebook still estimates that between 3 and 4 percent of Facebook accounts are not real. That means that with 2.2 billion users, around 66 million of those accounts are fake.
Google Employees Resign
Around a dozen Google employees resigned recently, protesting Google’s continued participation in a military program known as Project Maven. That’s the Department of Defense’s artificial intelligence program that analyzes drone video footage. It’s not clear exactly what Google’s role is in the program but Google’s expertise in machine learning and image analysis are likely being used.
Employee’s voicing public concerns over DoD use of Google resources began in April when over 4,000 Googlers signed an open letter to CEO Sundar Pichai wanting out of what they term “the business of war.” As of now there is no indication that Google plans to stop participating in Project Maven.
Apple’s Video Aspirations
It’s no secret that Apple is looking to crack into the video streaming business. Tim Cook briefly addressed this yesterday saying the content business is clearly an area of interest… but it’s not ready to give any details on it, yet. What we do know is Apple is investing over a billion dollars into buying original series, outbidding both TV studios and Netflix in some cases. When you pair this ambitious spending with Apple Music’s rapidly expanding userbase, things start to come into focus.
Back in April, Apple announced that it had 40 million paid subscribers to its apple music service. Cook announced it’s actually over 50 million subscribers when you include trial memberships, and the company is converting about 4 million of those trials to paid memberships each month. That would give Apple 60 million subscribers at the end of 2018.
All of those users, and soon-to-be users, would provide a sizable initial audience for the rollout of Apple’s video service. With the option to add video for, say, $5 a month, plenty would sign up. Would you?
