Authors and literary agents 'angry and frustrated' by Facebook impersonations

During the reporting process with Meta, Sykes was asked to verify her identity through her agent or a solicitor, presumably because the impersonator had appealed. “Why should you pay for this [through a solicitor] if it’s something Facebook should be managing? I’m in an enviable position when i can do this full-time and have been for 30 years but doesn’t mean I will be able to in the future."

Sykes then said she paid to become Meta-verified in Facebook "which was a whole other saga in itself" and revealed she was only able to complete much of the complex reporting process through help from her son, who is software engineer. "It’s a very complicated procedure, one-hit replies which don’t include follow ups. The onus is on authors and if you don’t give them the exact info they automatically reject your claim."

Sykes is partly frustrated because independent booksellers are losing sales (she links to the Hive retailer on her own website which donates to local bookshops). "This person is clearly in breach of Amazon affiliate guidelines. It’s really annoying and concerning for me that people can make money through book sales through this."

Sykes said of the psychological impact: "On an emotional level, it’s horrible, I can’t describe it. I started to hate the picture they’d put up of me... every time I saw it, I couldn’t look at it, I started feeling anger, frustration and hate, not liking that picture but I’d have to remind myself I was basically hating myself. 

"As a writer, we’re all proud of our craft... I would not have written any of the drivel on that page and I cringe when I see it. It was like a wound you keep touching it and it stings... I’ve lost work load over this... it feels stalker-y and makes me feel vulnerable."

Sykes believes it is an increasingly common problem for authors that tech companies need to respond to. "One agent I know described it as a continual problem with one of her clients. I think Facebook needs to have a much more simplified way of reporting. 

"It is so easy to ruin someone’s career and that really frightens me now. If they can’t sort out faking now, what hope is there when AI really takes hold?"

Art historian and author Ruth Millington recently experienced a similar “a full-on old impersonation" – on Instagram rather than Facebook – with all her pictures replicated, with the impersonator offering to exhibit artists’ work or turn their work into NFTs, "presumably to get money from these people".

After complaining to Meta, Millington was apparently told it was not a breach of community guidelines: "They ended up with more followers than me so my worry was that they’d believe more in the fake version than the real version of me... this profile was using technology to lift images, even though I’d blocked the account they could use technology to take the images."

Like Sykes, Millington believes it ties in with AI’s increasing dominance. "It relates to the conversation around AI-generated work because it benefits from our hard work and is something all creators are going to be experiencing more. It would feel more fair if these companies took our concerns more seriously especially regarding cases of impersonation."

"It’s made me feel frustrated with Meta because they didn’t take me seriously and very unnerved to have this fake version of me out there. I’ve worked so hard as an author to get a profile with my books and they shouldn’t be able to operate through the click of a button to use my years of research and writing."

Novelist Milly Johnson has previously experienced fraudulent profile posts and fake books written under her name, as well as more recent iterations. "I get stupid fake profiles set up on Facebook, usually when I am holding a competition and then the fake profile messages all the people who reply and tells them they’ve won the prize, so I’m very careful now when I do a competition post that I give a warning that I will not be contacting anyone and asking them to give away any of their private details. The very annoying thing is that people spot it, report it and Facebook comes back and says ‘they aren’t in violation of any rules’."

Additionally, writer Kit de Waal told The Bookseller how she had been followed by a fake profile purporting to be A Little Life author Hanya Yanagihara. Yanagihara’s agent Karolina Sutton, of CAA, said: "These pop up from time to time and have done for years. They get taken down, but it is a laborious process. Most social media users rely on their good judgment and realise these accounts are fake sooner or later. It would be great if an easy and reliable verification system existed, but I don’t think there is one at present."

Another major literary agency told The Bookseller that this issue had been discussed at a company meeting last week. 

The Bookseller contacted Meta several times and associated media agency Edelman but received no response. In its community standards policy, Meta’s guidelines read: "In line with our commitment to authenticity, we don’t allow people to misrepresent themselves on our services, use fake accounts, artificially boost the popularity of content or engage in behaviours designed to enable other violations under our Community Standards."  

The Bookseller also messaged the profile purporting to be Sykes for comment but did not receive a response.  

A spokesperson for the Society of Authors said: "Given the harm which can be caused by identity fraud, the Society of Authors encourages all social media platforms to act responsibly and to take immediate action when they are notified of the existence of fake accounts."