Facebook and Instagram on Friday filed a lawsuit in US federal court against four companies and three people based in the People’s Republic of China for promoting the sale of fake accounts, likes and followers.

Facebook said that the specific companies did this on both Facebook and Instagram as well as other online service providers including Amazon, Apple, Google, LinkedIn and Twitter. The company is also enforcing its rights under US intellectual property law for their illegal use of its trademarks and brand.

"By filing the lawsuit, we hope to reinforce that this kind of fraudulent activity is not tolerated – and that we’ll act forcefully to protect the integrity of our platform," said Paul Grewal, Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Litigation, Facebook.

The lawsuit specifically asks the court to prevent these people and entities from:

• Creating and promoting the sale of fake accounts, likes, and followers on Facebook and Instagram
• Infringing on our trademarks on their websites
• Using Facebook branded domain names to operate their websites (i.e. cyber squatting)