Instagram goes to war against fake follows and likes

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Instagram lawsuit
Instagram is fixing its fake likes problem.
Photo: Pixabay

Using a third-party app to gain followers and likes on Instagram are about to become a lot less effective at artificially growing audiences.

Instagram revealed today that it is going to war against fake follows and likes by using AI to identify accounts that engage in the practice. Starting today, Instagram says it will remove inauthentic likes, follows and comments from accounts that use third-party apps to boost their popularity.

This is the message you’ll see if you’re guilty:

Instagram
Instagram is giving some third-party services the boot.
Photo: Instagram

“Every day people come to Instagram to have real experiences, including genuine interactions. It is our responsibility to ensure these experiences aren’t disrupted by inauthentic activity,” the company said in a blog post. “We’ve built machine learning tools to help identify accounts that use these services and remove the inauthentic activity.”

Instagram says inauthentic behavior is bad for the community and third-party apps that generate likes and follows violates the app’s terms of use and community guidelines. Users found in violation will receive an in-app message alerting them to the issue and be asked to change their password.

One of the problems with the third-party apps is they make accounts less secure. Accounts that continue to use third-party apps to create fake interactions and grow their audience “may see their Instagram experience impacted,” warns Instagram.

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