Facebook-owned photo-sharing app Instagram has confirmed that it will be taking an action on accounts that generate fake likes, comments and followers. The platform has updated its Community Guidelines and Terms of Use regarding the same. Instagram has also said that it will be using machine learning tools to eliminate all the inauthentic activity that has been generated from accounts like these.
Instagram has been quoted saying, “We’ve built machine learning tools to help identify accounts that use [third-party apps for boosting followers] and remove the inauthentic activity.”
The photo-sharing app has also warned its users that if they have shared their account details with any third-party app, they must reset their password as soon as they can. Instagram will be sending users an in-app alert to inform them about their account being used to generate inauthentic activity on the photo-sharing platform. The user will have to log out of his account, change his password and log back in, and only then shall the removal process be completed. However, Instagram has also said that the app experience for some users may get changed once they reset their password.
Last week, a report in New York Times explained the concept of ‘nano-influencers’ on social media and what effect they can have. According to the report, a nano-influencer is a person who has as few as thousand followers on a particular platform, but gets paid by brands to market various products. Marketing agencies are known to pay influencers if they manage to spread the word about their products better.
It is a known fact that there are apps which help users increase followers and charge a monthly fees from the user for it. And often, these apps claim that they don’t violate Instagram’s policies, but in reality, they do. A report in New York Times also claims that even well-known celebrities have stooped to buying fake followers for their Twitter accounts from a company called Devumi.
But the photo-sharing platform has vowed to remove fake accounts. It is not only talking about removing these accounts, but also the content that has been posted by them.
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