Fine Gael blames ‘spam’ for surge in Facebook popularity

Fine Gael has said its official Facebook account was "spammed" after a post-budget Q&A with junior minister Simon Harris attracted over 2,500 'likes' .

When asked whether Fine Gael had bought Facebook ‘likes’ for the page, a Fine Gael spokesman said the account had been “spammed”.

He said the party was investigating the large number of ‘likes’ which appeared after the message was posted yesterday afternoon, adding that the party Facebook page had never been spammed before.

Fine Gael posted a message on Facebook early this morning claiming yesterday’s post had been “spammed” by a number of inauthentic Facebook users. The Fine Gael Digital Media department called on followers not to engage with the ‘likes’, the majority of which came from overseas.

“These users are posting requests for your to add them, among other things,” Fine Gael posted this morning. “We hope to have this rectified at the earliest convenience.”

A Channel 4 Dispatches investigation revealed last year how some businesses were able to promote themselves on the internet by buying fake Facebook 'likes', Twitter followers and YouTube views.

The programme discovered a team of low-paid workers in Bangladesh were involved in the 'like' scam, which involved logging in and out of Facebook using fake profiles.

Facebook released a statement at the time saying a ‘like’ that doesn’t come from someone “truly interesting” would provide no real benefit to the business.

"If you run a Facebook page and someone offers you a boost in your fan count in return for money, our advice is to walk away - not least because it is against our rules and there is a good chance those likes will be deleted by our automatic systems," said the statement in the Guardian newspaper.

Its not the first time that Fine Gael’s digital presence has been centre focus. In 2012 personal details of up to 2,000 people who submitted comments to the Fine Gael website were compromised in a cyber attack .