Social Media Should Require Validation of New Users to Combat Fake Accounts

[engine]

Is it time that social media accounts were validated in some way to stem the rise in fake and bot accounts?

The major social media companies expect their users to meet their terms of service, but as the accounts are often used to verify certain services, should the users be verified before the account is set up? That might be one way to stem the tide of fake and bot accounts.

[nytimes.com...]

[LifeinAsia]

I seriously doubt it's going to happen any time soon. The serious drop in number of new accounts would cause a revolt of stockholders (who are apparently all too happy to accept the currently inflated numbers as real).

But I could see validation as an optional step after account creation, with some sort of carrot to encourage users to verify.

[TravisDGarrett]

When I created my twitter account, for personal use, I had to enter a phone number, to receive a pin code to validate my account.

[engine]

It's wise to add the security of your phone number, but i'm wondering if the added verification will stop cur back the huge volumes of system spammers. After all, the spammers on your accounts are not true users, so it's of no true benefit.

[topr8]

i think in the future governments may well insist on it, for all kinds of good reasons, however their regulations and rules for implimenting this will of course be a mess.

however i'd agree with LifeInAsia, the number of fake accounts suits stockholders, it also suits a lot of users to have an inflated number of likes or whatever ... so currently there is no vested interest in cutting back on fake accounts.

regarding the pin code being sent to a cell phone, i've set up quite a few twitter accounts for people (all real i might add) and i'm pretty sure i've used my personal cellphone number in all cases (also you don't need to do this i don't think) ... implying that you can open multiple accounts with the same number, you can even be anonymous with this method as, where i live, pay as you go SIMs are readily available over the counter.