Facebook says it removed 5.4 billion fake, abusive accounts this year

Facebook on Wednesday said it has nixed 5.4 billion fake accounts already this year, many within moments of being created at the leading social network.

"We have improved our ability to detect and block attempts to create fake, abusive accounts," the internet firm said in its latest transparency report.

"We can estimate that every day, we prevent millions of attempts to create fake accounts using these detection systems." The detailed report also showed that government demands for user information hit a new high led by the US.