A screengrab of Kim Jong-un's Facebook



By Jung Min-ho



It is no secret that fake accounts have long been pervasive on Facebook. Just try the name of Moon Jae-in, the South Korean President. You can see dozens of accounts showing his name and photos.



One of "Moon Jae-in" accounts has two friends; and one of them claims to be North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. "Leave you addresses here. I will send you nuclear bombs," he wrote on March 11.



It is not the only account that claims to be Kim. Another "Kim Jong-un," who has more than 1,700 followers, uploads new text messages and pictures every few days to entertain his fans, including his wife "Ri Sol-ju" and his grandfather "Kim Il-sung." Apparently in joke, Kim Jong-un often praises the liberal South Korean leader, and his fans love it.



Facebook's inability to solve fake account problems has long frustrated many of its users. But not all. Instead of complaining about them, some have found ways to play with them.



On Facebook, it is easy to find people impersonating politicians and celebrities, and some of them have lots of fans.



Park Hang-seo, the South Korean coach of the Vietnamese men's Olympic football team, does not have a Facebook account, but dozens of accounts pretend to be him. One of them has more than 170,000 followers.



When "Park" posted his apology after his team lost a game against South Korea at the Asian Games in Jakarta on Aug. 19, a whopping 55,000 people reacted to the comment. But in this case, many appear to believe ― falsely ― that coach Park actually wrote it.



"You're the best coach! You make many people in this country have a hope with VN football! We must thank you for all things you do," one Vietnamese fan wrote.



Last week, Facebook Korea invited journalists to a media session, in which officials explained how the company has responded to various fake content issues in recent months.



Facebook said it has been doing its utmost to reduce misinformation in cooperation with the International Face-Checking Network and other partners around the world. In the case of fake accounts, it said it deletes up to 97 percent of them daily. But given that the company has more than 2 billion monthly active users, the 3 percent means tons of new fake accounts.



A senior PR official at Facebook Korea told The Korea Times that Facebook has technology it can utilize to fight fake accounts more effectively. For instance, its facial-recognition technology can spot when a phony profile tries to use someone else's photos.



"But we take a conservative approach when it comes to removing fake accounts because of the issues of legality and free expression," the official said.



But some experts, including Jonathan L. Zittrain, a Harvard professor of internet law, believe the company remains reluctant to fight bogus users and misinformation largely because of its business model, which is designed to maximize user growth and retention.



Facebook, in principle, allows one account per person, but few checks exist to verify whether users provide correct information about themselves when they create accounts. As a result, it has become a home to hundreds of millions of fake accounts and a playground for those who like it that way.

