Manila, Jan 11 (IANS) Facebook on Friday said it has banned a digital marketing group in the Philippines - Twinmark Media Enterprises and all its subsidiaries - from its platform for repeatedly violating its misrepresentation and spam policies.

The social media giant blocked 220 Facebook Pages, 73 Facebook accounts and 29 Instagram accounts.

Nearly 43 million accounts followed at least one of these Facebook Pages, said Nathaniel Gleicher, Head of Cybersecurity Policy, in a blog post.

"This organisation has repeatedly violated our misrepresentation and spam policies - including through coordinated inauthentic behaviour, the use of fake accounts, leading people to ad farms, and selling access to Facebook Pages to artificially increase distribution and generate profit."

Facebook acted after it learned that Twinmark was selling admin rights to Facebook Pages it had created, in order to increase distribution and generate profit.

"We do not want our services to be used for this type of behaviour, nor do we want the group to be able to reestablish a presence on Facebook," said Gleicher.

"We will continue to invest heavily in safety and security in order to ensure that people can continue to trust the connections they make on Facebook," Gleicher added.

--IANS na/bg