Following the example of its parent company — Facebook — Instagram is now cracking down on ‘inauthentic activity’ and they’re using machine learning tools to help them get rid of the fake engagement.

The company says that there has been a rise in the number of accounts that are using third-party apps to boost their audience and engagement artificially.

To tackle this, Instagram will begin removing inauthentic likes, follows and comments from accounts that are using a third-party app to increase 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,” Instagram stated.

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

How is Instagram tackling inauthentic activity?

• The social media company will first identify the accounts using the third-party services.
• Then they’ll show an in-app message to these accounts alerting them about the likes, follows and comments given by them to other accounts that have been removed.
• These user accounts will also be asked to change their password as people who use such third-party apps using their Instagram login credentials make their accounts less secure.

“People who use these types of apps share their username and password, and their accounts are sometimes used by third-party apps for inauthentic likes, follows and comments.”

Even if you receive the in-app message, it doesn’t mean that your account will be closed or you’ll experience any difficulties using the social media service. Rather consider this a warning message because if an account continues to use the third-party apps to boost their popularity, their Instagram experience will be hampered.

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