Instagram is cracking down fake likes and comments to fight automated bots

Instagram, the photo-sharing platform owned by Facebook has announced its latest purge by taking down inauthentic likes follows and comments from accounts that use third-party apps in order to increase their popularity.

Instagrams new Machine Learning (ML) tool will aid in spotting fake accounts that used automated apps to generate likes and follows via fake users that helped them produce a fake impression of enjoying more attention.

"This type of behaviour is bad for the community... and violates our Community Guidelines and Terms of Use," it said, reports Xinhua news agency.

Instagram has asked users not to use third-party apps to access their accounts as such behaviour may have the login information exposed and hacked and the accounts being exploited to send spam.

"These new measures will be ongoing, and accounts that continue to use third-party apps to grow their audience may see their Instagram experience impacted," the company said.

Instagram has long been fighting unauthentic activity on its platform by taking out fake accounts, but it has not taken similar action against false likes before.