Fake account sweep on Facebook causes fan decline for Zynga titles

Zynga has taken a hit in regards to the publisher’s community numbers thanks to Facebook implementing measures to remove fraudulent ‘Likes’ from its pages.

Tech Crunch reports the firm, along with many other companies on the social network, saw drops in fan numbers after Facebook went about weeding out fake, forged, hacked, or otherwise illegitimately earned likes this week.

Zynga’s Texas HoldEm Poker has lost nearly 100,000 fans. FarmVille is down 41,000, while CityVille dropped 25,000, and 21,000 more for Mafia Wars.

The numbers may seem significant at first glance, but it turns out they’re not much more than a blip. Texas HoldEm Poker currently boasts over 65m fans for example.

Facebook clarified that on average most pages wouldn’t see more than a one per cent drop in fans – as long as the pages follow Facebook guidelines and aren’t hoarding ‘Likes’ from disreputable sources or tricking users into following.