San Francisco, April 27: In order to "protect the integrity" of its platform, social networking giant Facebook has sued a New Zealand based fraud company that sold inauthentic likes, views and followers for Instagram posts and accounts for an undisclosed amount. Facebook estimates that the company, Social Media Series Limited, run by Arend Nollen, Leon Hedges and David Pasanen earned around $9.4 million through such social media bot operations that allowed users to buy between 50 and 2,000 fake Instagram likes for between $10 and $99 per week, The Verge reported on Friday. Facebook Hits Milestone of 2.38 Billion Monthly Active Users By The End of First Quarter in 2019.

The social networking giant filed a lawsuit in the US Federal Court against Social Media Series Limited, accusing the company of engaging and profiting in the sale of fake likes, views and followers on Instagram, violating Facebook's Terms of Use and Community Guidelines and violating the Californian "Computer Fraud" and "Abuse Act" for indulging into fake social engagement activities.

"By filing the lawsuit, we are sending a message that this kind of fraudulent activity is not tolerated on our services, and we will act to protect the integrity of our platform," Jessica Romero, Director of Platform Enforcement and Litigation at Facebook wrote in a blog-post.

Facebook says, previously it has not only warned the New Zealand-based company about their violations in writing, but also suspended accounts associated with the firm, despite which the company continued their illegal practices using a fake company name.

"Inauthentic activity has no place on our platform. That's why we devote significant resources to detecting and stopping this behaviour, including blocking the creation and use of fake accounts, and using machine learning technology to proactively find and remove inauthentic activity from Instagram," Romero added.

In March, Facebook sued many Chinese companies that were found to have been selling likes and followers on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and other social platforms, The Verge added.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 27, 2019 11:57 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).