Social media networking site Facebook has started cracking down on fraudulent accounts showing suspicious high number of 'likes'. A Facebook spokesperson said in an emailed response in Kolkatta that data from the Facebook team show that close to 52,000 pages exist for politicians and political parties in India. He said the step is being taken in view of the politicians allegedly boosting their social media presence in the poll season using fake online followers.

He said Facebook which has around 93 million monthly active users in India alone has always focused on maintaining the integrity of the site but now an increased focus has been put on the alleged abuse from fake accounts recently. Facebook has built up a combination of automated and manual systems to block accounts used for fraudulent purposes and to boost Likes'. Company officials say action is being taken against sellers of fake clicks and are helping to shut them down.

With the growing power of social media, politicians across parties have taken to the digital medium to interact with the youth through Facebook and Twitter in the election season. It is suspected that many 'Likes' and 'followers' on these platforms are from fake account holders.

Among the pages for politicians on Facebook, Narendra Modi is a clear winner with a massive 1.2 crore 'Likes' followed by Arvind Kejriwal 48 lakh, Mamata Banerjee 670,000 and Akhikesh Yadav 475,000.