[anrmq7]

Fake followers and fake engagement are widespread on Instagram - much more prolific than advertisers realize. I’ve worked with “influencers” for years. In the past few months brands, advertisers and agencies I speak to are voicing their concern. So, I'm helping build a product (based on analysis of 80 million profiles so far) which will allow brands steer clear of fake influencers, e.g. those women being paid $X/month to walk around NYC and promote handbags/yoga clothes/etc. based on the 50k fake followers they've bought from some website.

[FilterSweep]

> based on the 50k fake followers they've bought from some website. This, and its not just limited to buying fake followers.

There is an effect with real followers unintentionally following pages by either churn&burn or clickfarms, as well.

Facebook has this occur more widespread. The churn n' burn goes as follows: 1) Build Meme or image sharing page, 2) Accrue 50K+ followers, 3) Sell page to an influencer, influencer updates pictures and profile 4) Followers of old page have no idea the influencer they're following, and now see ads mixed in with the old content.

All and all, the overinflation in that industry is reaching bubble levels, if it hasn't already passed it.

[MuffinFlavored]

Can't Instagram very easily determine what accounts are fake? I know they already have measures in place to prevent fake account creation.

They could even use the algorithm in this article to flag 90% of all "most likely fake" accounts, and require a series of daily captchas to remain active?