Adnan Abidi/Reuters
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
- Facebook quietly increased its number of estimated duplicate accounts to 10% from 6%.
- Estimated fake accounts were raised to 2-3% from 1%.
Hidden within Facebook's blockbuster third-quarter earnings on Wednesday are two important numbers the company quietly updated.
10% of Facebook's 2.07 billion monthly users are now estimated to be duplicate accounts, up from 6% estimated previously. The social network's number of fake accounts, or accounts not associated with a real account, increased from 1% to 2-3%.
In its earnings release shared with investors, Facebook said the changes were due to "a new methodology for duplicate accounts that included improvements to the data signals we rely on."
While a relatively small percentage of Facebook's massive user base, the 10% figure means that there are now roughly 207 million duplicate accounts and as many as 60 million fake accounts on the network.
This story is developing. Check back for updates.