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Facebook Removing Likes from Deactivated & Memorialized Accounts on March 12th

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If you run a Facebook page you should be aware that Facebook is planning to remove all likes made by counts that are either deactivated – by the user or by Facebook – as well as likes made by those users who pages are now memorialized after passing away.

March 12th is the day that Facebook plans to clean house of all these accounts and their likes, and many Facebook page owners will see the number of likes drop on their Pages drop. In the cases where Facebook Page owners have paid Facebook to promote their page for likes, those users are going to see their like drop as well. This is because many accounts that are created simply by the “Buy 1,000 likes for $10” types of companies actually click Like on many of these promoted Facebook Like ads to try to hide the fact they are fake users are bots.

To a lesser degree, some Facebook pages might notice a drop if their pages somehow cater to either older users or perhaps those Pages about specific terminal health issues.

Facebook is also running an alert directed at admin’s of Facebook Pages to let them know about the upcoming Like purge, so the strikes me as they are aware could cause a significant impact on some accounts particularly those who may have used the services of “Buy 1000 likes” companies to boost their Facebook Page.

Removing the likes from memorialized accounts is a good move.  When I visit a particular website, I always notice the fact that the Facebook widget shows me the photo of a friend who had liked their page previously, but who has since passed away, making me a bit sad every time I notice it.

It is not known if these removed likes will show as “unlikes” in the insights section of the Facebook admin panel, or if they will just simply vanish.

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Jennifer Slegg

Founder & Editor at The SEM Post
Jennifer Slegg is a longtime speaker and expert in search engine marketing, working in the industry for almost 20 years. When she isn't sitting at her desk writing and working, she can be found grabbing a latte at her local Starbucks or planning her next trip to Disneyland. She regularly speaks at Pubcon, SMX, State of Search, Brighton SEO and more, and has been presenting at conferences for over a decade.

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Comments

  1. If it were up to me, it seems smarter to only deactivate the likes in terms of the Facebook algorithms. Leave the numbers there, just flag them so they’re not considered as actual likes. For memorialized accounts this means you can go to the accounts and browse the likes but not see those accounts in widgets or even the “This year in you..” things Facebook does.