Azerbaijanis increasingly turn to Facebook

/By AzerNews/

By Nigar Orujova

Azerbaijanis increasingly turned to world’s leading social network, Facebook in 2014.

Since the beginning of 2014, the activities of Facebook users in Azerbaijan increased by 48.3 percent, a report by Statistics Center "Global Stats" said.

Market share of Facebook in Azerbaijan at the end of December amounted to 96.48 percent, which shows a 53 percent increase over the same period in 2013. A decline of activity was recorded in June, a period of vacations, with 46.86 percent.

Facebook is the most popular social network in Azerbaijan used by both old and young.

Meanwhile, a significant decline of 97.73 percent was recorded in the number of YouTube users in 2014. Share of YouTube among social media in Azerbaijan at the end of December was recorded at 0.15 percent, which is 98.18 percent lower than the same period in 2013. YouTube burst of activity was recorded in June with 40.5 percent and in November with 14.1 percent.

Twitter has not yet managed to gain the attraction of Azerbaijani users of the Internet. Its market share is 1.51 percent. Twitter is followed by Tumblr - 0,51 percent, Vkontakte - 0.44 percent, Pinterest - 0,4 percent, YouTube - 0,15, Odnoklassniki - 0,06 percent and others.

Dangerous or safe?

Today, the list of things that modern persons cannot live without includes social media, with Facebook being the most popular one so far.

There are a lot of pros and cons about using social media, which can help your life, or ruin it. Depending on the information you post on your profile, you can feel safe or at risk. Whether you are the person who fill the newsfeed only with cute kittens or puppies, or active participant of the network, there are people who are seeking to stole your account.

However, not every Azerbaijanis know how Facebook may harm them.

The website admits the fact, that over 100 million accounts are duplicated, and their percentage is higher in the developing markets.

This “problem” is also common in Azerbaijan. Many Facebook users in Azerbaijan now ask their friends to report on the fake accounts that use their personal information or photos.

This “reports'” usefulness is unknown, but after direct contact with the owner of fake accounts, which sometimes includes threats, these accounts are usually deleted.

However, some of the most arrogant users continue using other people’s personal information.

Fake accounts are created to take advantage of certain persons and to cheat them.

Due to growing number of such experiences in the country, Cyber Security Center under Azerbaijan’s Communication and High Technologies Ministry has created a manual to help people to fight with fake accounts.

The manual is available on the website of the Cyber Security Center.

The booklet has been prepared on the basis of current usage and safety rules of Facebook, the center said.

The topics mentioned in the booklet mainly covers security rules to follow while using Facebook social network, the most important steps for security of the Facebook account, measures to return stolen Facebook account, spreading ways of spam and viruses via Facebook, fake accounts.

Unfortunately, many users do not realize the seriousness of this problem. They often do not even know that their account is used by hackers, or there are fake pages on their behalf.

Still, there are a number of ways to detect and report a fake Facebook account.

Look carefully at photos, status updates, wall posts and their recent activities. If a user has not updated a status, has not been involved in any wall posting or has had a lot of friends of the opposite gender, it means that the profile is likely to be fake.

After identifying fake account, go to the Timeline, click “gear” like pin, then select Report/Block and follow the instruction.

Social networks are the simplest way to the information in the modern world but users should stay aware, that their information could also be used by others.

Nigar Orujova is AzerNews’s staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @o_nigar

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