Facebook's subsidiary Instagram wants to act harder against fake follower numbers. The photo and video platform warned its users late Monday that it would delete followers, likes, and comments automatically created by third-party apps.

Instagram is particularly annoying with apps that help users pretend to be more active on their profiles. The service now wants to locate artificially bloated profiles with the help of software.

Instagram users with many followers can hope to go through what are known as "influencers" and perhaps close promotional deals with brands whose products they present for a fee. So there is an incentive to click fraud.

Third party programs as a security risk

Third-party apps users also point out to Instagram the security risks associated with programs that have access to their own account. "Users using such apps are passing on their username and password," warns Instagram. In part, this happens without the user realizing it. Therefore, some users want to prompt Instagram via a hint within the app to set a new password for their account.

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Photography: From Instagram to the gallery

Facebook and Instagram have been dealing with fake activity on their platforms for a long time. For example, in recent years fake accounts have been erased on a large scale, especially after fake accounts on Facebook were used for political propaganda around the 2016 US presidential election, including from Russia. In the past quarter alone, Facebook reportedly deleted a good 750 million counterfeit accounts.