Facebook is cracking down on groups sharing pirated music

Although it doesn't like to admit it, Facebook sometimes plays host to some unsavoury or illegal activities.

From gun sales to drug dealing, people are always looking for ways to misuse the world's largest social network.

But sharing pirated music on the site just got a bit harder.

TorrentFreak reports that Facebook has recently cracked down on a string of Facebook groups dedicated to illegally sharing copyrighted music.

Netherlands-based anti-piracy group BREIN apparently flagged nine groups to Facebook that were being used to distribute "several thousand" albums illegally.

And it comes after Facebook deleted "a number" of other similar groups earlier this year.

"Links to infringing files hosted on cloud services were indexed on the pages. Knowingly posting links to infringing files is itself a violation," BREIN said in a statement.

The group has also been taking direct action against the people sharing music on these groups. In August, it tracked down one pirate who shared music he had uploaded in a Facebook group, and forced him into a €7,000 (£6,232) settlement, TorrentFreak reported at the time.

Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.