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What could explain the mechanics of how this happens?

Surely FB employees aren't managing those bot accounts themselves. Do they generally determine accounts that engage with ads to be "human/real", thereby incentivizing bad actors who spin up fake FB accounts to click/"like" ads?

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They could also do it at arm's length. A lot of MTurk-style sites have loads of jobs along the lines of, "click this ad, fill out this form, get $0.02".

But who is paying those MTurk click farms to click ads on Facebook?

> Surely FB employees aren't managing those bot accounts themselves

Why not? It's not like Facebook employees have a track record as paragons of virtue.

If there are managers incentivized to meet click targets, it could even happen informally. Like the Wells Fargo account-opening scandal.

No business as successful as Facebook is going to do something as idiotic as introducing click targets.

Clearly you would want to optimise the rates ;)

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