A Facebook contractor was caught accepting a ton of money to restore banned accounts

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The latest scandal surrounding Facebook concerns a contractor and a shady advertiser, one that was bribing them to restore banned accounts. That’s according to a report from BuzzFeed News, which goes on to say that Ads Inc. was the shady advertiser and that the contractor involved no longer works for Facebook.

With the platform’s issues on fake news and scams, this latest report is pretty damning on just how little oversight Facebook has over some of its contractors. Thousands of dollars exchanged hands in the scheme, which reactivated shady ad accounts run by Ads Inc. that were reselling access to Facebook user accounts.

Whoops, a Facebook contractor was found restoring banned accounts for cash

San Diego based Ads Inc. reportedly paid thousands of dollars to a Facebook contractor to reactivate their banned accounts. Kinda makes a mockery of any efforts to clean up the platform, doesn’t it?

More information from the BuzzFeed News report:

• Up to $8,000 was reportedly paid by Ads Inc. to reactivate the accounts
• Apparently more than one person employed by Facebook (or its contractors) were willing to reactivate the shady accounts for cash
• Ads Inc. sidestepped Facebook advertising policy by paying users to let them post from their personal accounts

Whew, just when you thought the Mark Zuckerberg Production had turned a corner, new reports show just how far they really need to go.

What do you think? Surprised by the findings? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.