As of Monday, November 19, fake followers obtained through third-party applications will be removed from Instagram. The social media entity is deleting all of these bot accounts as well as the comments and likes associated with them. The statement issued by the photo & video sharing platform did not name specific apps that some users employ to boost their numbers of followers, though this type of technology can be found through the likes of Skweezer, Incentafan, Mr. Insta, Boostgram, and Turbo Like for Instagram.
“Starting today, we will begin removing inauthentic likes, follows and comments from accounts that use third-party apps to boost their popularity,” Instagram said in a statement. “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.”
A private message will be sent out to all accounts that are suspected of being affected by these fake users, whether they had used the follower-boosting technology or not. The owners of the flagged accounts will be alerted of the deletion of all fake likes, follows, and comments. They will also be asked to change their password since "some people may have unknowingly shared their login credentials with a third-party app.” Those who knowingly continue to use this app will find their "Instagram experience impacted."