Faux Celebs Be Warned! Instagram is Killing Off Fake Followers

One of the quickest ways to Internet stardom is to build a large following on social media…of some kind.

A few services out there specialize in bringing tons of extra attention to your account at rock bottom prices.

The only problem with these deals? They typically involve fake accounts and, thus, fake followers.

These bot services promise and deliver tons of followers, but you’ll never really hear from this group and don’t expect them to spend any money. But if all that matters to you is how many people “follow” you or “like” your page, then these guys represent a deal.

Instagram has had enough of their shenanigans and announced a campaign to eliminate fake followers in what could be the largest purge of the social media platform to date.

So if you bought from services that bring in followers that are all bots, you could notice your account will lose a portion of its audience.

But you should have known this could happen. After all, bots violate the terms of service for the platform.

The thinking on Instagram’s part is twofold: Bots ruin the user experience and they, most importantly, make advertiser dollars less effective. And Instagram pulls in a ton of money for parent company Facebook.

Discussing the problem, Instagram said: “Recently, we’ve seen accounts use third-party apps to artificially grow their audience…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.”

In the future Instagram will be taking a more active approach towards weeding out bots and fake likes in the community. Users who have purchased followers and the like should see a message next time they log into Instagram telling them about what the social media platform plans to do in terms of getting rid of fake followers.