Instagram explicitly prohibits in its guidelines the use of fake followers, also known as “follower farms” or “bot farms.” These are operations where a large number of fake accounts are created using automation programs, and in some cases also managed manually to simulate human behavior. These practices are particularly prevalent in countries such as China, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Bangladesh. The sellers of fake followers often try to disguise them as real by geolocating them to appear as if they were created and active in specific countries, using fake profile photos or biographies, and occasionally publishing random content or viewing other users’ stories.
In Italy, like in many other places, there are numerous websites offering to sell fake followers, and Dataroom has investigated some of them to uncover the individuals or entities behind these operations. Another deceptive method used to increase followers involves the use of bots, which automate actions such as following and unfollowing to create the appearance of organic growth. However, Instagram’s algorithms are designed to impose limitations on such actions to penalize accounts that exceed certain thresholds of likes, comments, and other engagement activities. Accounts with a high proportion of fake followers also face reduced reach due to their lack of genuine engagement.
To combat these practices, Instagram takes measures such as limiting the actions that can be performed within specific time frames and reducing the reach of accounts with low interaction levels. Additionally, some of these follower-selling operations are found to be linked to entities located in other countries, such as a Canadian-owned company with ties to a company in Dubai. Despite these measures, the sale and use of fake followers continue to be a concern for social media platforms and their users.