Instagram is taking action against fake followers and likes
Instagram has built machine learning tools to help identify accounts that use these services and remove the inauthentic activity.
Since its inception, Instagram has scaled the heights of popularity that just a handful of social media apps have managed to achieve. This has led to the app being successfully purchased by Facebook and has spawned the likes of countless Instagram celebrities. While most of these Instagram celebrities get followers in a legit manner, there are quite a few people out there that opt for third-party apps to help them achieve a high number of likes and followers. Now, Instagram is cracking down on said accounts which have fake followers and removing the fake likes and comments that have been created by third-party apps.
In a blog post, Instagram states that they will begin removing inauthentic likes, follows and comments from accounts that use third-party apps to boost their popularity. The social media giant has built machine learning tools to help identify accounts that use these services and remove the inauthentic activity. This type of behaviour is bad for the community, and third-party apps that generate inauthentic likes follows and comments violate the Instagram community guidelines and terms of use.
Accounts that have been identified as using these services will receive an in-app message alerting them that the inauthentic likes, follows and comments given by their account to others has been removed. Instagram will also ask the said users to secure their account by changing their password. People who use these types of apps share their username and password, and their accounts are sometimes used by third-party apps for inauthentic likes, follows and comments.
Not only does this introduce bad behaviour into the Instagram community, but it also makes these accounts less secure.
Instagram goes on to state that since its early days, they have auto-detected and removed fake accounts to protect the community. The new update is just another step in keeping Instagram a vibrant community where people connect and share in authentic ways.
Instagram ends by stating that more updates in the coming weeks on additional measures will be taken to curb inauthentic activity on the platform.