Instagram Out To Boot Fake Followers, Comments And Likes

Photo-sharing social network Instagram has announced a crackdown aimed at doing away with fake followers, likes, and comments generated by applications tailored to make accounts appear more popular than they actually are.

In a blog post, Instagram said that users who had ballooned their audience using third-party apps will be affected most.

“Starting today, we will begin removing inauthentic likes, follows and comments from accounts that use third-party apps to boost their popularity.”

Instagram is using self-improving software programs to help identify accounts that use such apps and purge products of inauthentic activity.

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“We’ve built machine learning tools to help identify accounts that use these services and remove the inauthentic activity. This type of behavior is bad for the community, and third-party apps that generate inauthentic likes, follows and comments violate our Community Guidelines and Terms of Use,” stated Instagram.

Instagram said it would notify users about removed likes, follows, or comments.

“Accounts we identify using these services will receive an in-app message alerting them that we have removed the inauthentic likes, follows and comments given by their account to others. We will also ask them to secure their account by changing their password,” added the blog post

The move was pioneered by Twitter, which recently kicked out inauthentic accounts, resulting in declines in the number of followers for some users.