Instagram to crack down fake likes, comments, follows on its platform

Instagram is doing its best to fight fake news and reduce inauthentic activity on its platform. Now, the firm is removing all inauthentic activities including fake likes, follows and comments on its site.

In a blog post published yesterday, social media site Instagram announced it that it is removing inauthentic likes, follows and comments from accounts that user third-party apps to boost their popularity. Also, those people who use these apps will be prompted to stop.

“Recently, we’ve seen accounts use third-party apps to artificially grow their audience. It is our responsibility to ensure the real experiences aren’t disrupted by inauthentic activity.”

Instagram’s recent security bug exposes some users’ passwords

“We’re taking a number of steps to limit this kind of unwelcome behavior. 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,” Instagram said.

The picture-sharing site told that it has built machine learning tools able to identify accounts that use these types of third-party apps, which often ask its users’ passwords to give out fake interactions on their behalf.

“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.”

Instagram claimed that it knows people might have unknowingly shared their login credentials with a third-party app. It informed the people that if the users receive an in-app message, they should simply change their passwords to revoke their access to their accounts.

The company said that people who continue to use the apps will ‘see their Instagram experience impacted’, such as limited access to certain features, Instagram told Tech Crunch.

“Today’s update is just another step in keeping Instagram a vibrant community where people connect and share in authentic ways. We’ll have more updates in the coming weeks on additional measures we’re taking to tackle inauthentic activity on Instagram.”