Fake Instagram accounts with sexy photos of women and links to pornographic content in their profile descriptions like stories of all sorts, from family photos to artistic creations. This engagement has bothered Brazilian users of the social network, who took to Twitter to complain.
THE Sheet found nearly 200 complaints this year alone. Wanted, Meta, owner of Instagram, says it devotes significant resources to fighting profiles that promote this type of behavior on its platforms. “When detected, we consider all applicable options, including suspending and removing accounts.”
Meta did not respond to the article’s question about the moderation of descriptive texts that refer to pornography.
The links released by these accounts refer to blogs with erotic advertising, which pays per view on the web. Advertisements on these pages offer adult content or promise easy ways to get sex.
Fake accounts also feature automated behavior, such as names filled with random letters and numbers. They behave in a simple way, they just like stories or tag people. And they have few followers or are followed by other fake profiles.
English speakers have called these accounts “sex bots”. In every language, people joke that if no one likes your stories, a fake profile will rescue you from ostracism.
See how to protect yourself.
Know who can see your stories
Can see Instagram stories who has permission to see profile posts. Access to photos on Instagram can be changed in the privacy settings.
Users can still enable the option to only be followed by those who approve. Thus, only those who have approval to follow the publications see the stories.
Instagram also shows all the people who viewed what was posted in stories. Thus, the person has the option to restrict the access of certain people to the publications.
This option is not noticeable for those who have limited access, according to Meta.
Other users complained that bots also tagged them in spam posts.
You can restrict who can mention your account to just your followers, or block anyone from doing so.
block
The blocked person will not be notified and will not be able to send you messages or find your profile, posts or stories. Information on blocking accounts can be found here.
By blocking a profile, it is possible to block new accounts that the same person creates, to make it difficult for the abuser to resume contact.
report it
Meta also encourages people to report any suspicious Instagram accounts or activity through the reporting tools.
- To report abusive behavior, click on the ellipses at the top right of the profile and select the “Report” option.
- Instagram then asks the reason for the complaint. Meta advises choosing the options “Content is inappropriate” and “Is pretending to be someone else”
- This last option requires the user to specify whether the fake account is pretending to be you, an acquaintance, an organization or a public figure.
- Finally, click on “Report Account”
Avoid having your account stolen
To strengthen account security, it is recommended to enable two-factor authentication option in security settings.
When someone tries to connect to the account, they will need to verify the attempt on another device.
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