Facebook has had to file a lawsuit complaint against two app developers on its platform. According to the lawsuit, Facebook claims that these app developers faked ad clicks inside their apps. This incident is regarding the Facebook Audience Network which is similar to Google’s AdSense in many ways. For example, Facebook’s audience network lets app developers place ads on their property such as application or website. After that, the app developers earn revenue from the ads that have been hosted on their property.
However, the issue here is that the app developers tricked Facebook and advertisers into thinking that the ad clicks generated inside their apps were real. This meant that they would earn revenue from the ad clicks which were actually fake according to Facebook. Both the developers that have been sued by Facebook are from HongKong and Singapore respectively. And it is known that click farms and paid clicks are the most in those countries.
Therefore, it won’t be a surprise at all if the lawsuit turns out to be real and Facebook wins the claim. According to a statement from Facebook, the apps created by these developers already had malware inside it. So when a user would enter the app, a fake click would be registered even if the user had not clicked on the ad. Also known is the fact that these apps were very basic in nature. Such as apps which help you to clean the phone, save battery life, scan for viruses and more.
The suspicion that this app might be fake was given by its users as well. They say that the app which lets you clean the phone made it slower by showing adult ads. Facebook might have investigated the incident after several such reports. At the moment, Facebook has banned both these developers from their audience network and have refunded advertisers who were affected by this issue. It is expected that Facebook will cover the losses from these advertisers with the help of its lawsuit.