Social media platform Instagram has announced plans to take action against users artificially increasing their follower numbers.
"Starting today, we will begin removing inauthentic likes, follows and comments from accounts that use third-party apps to boost their popularity," Instagram posted late on Monday.
The social platform, which is owned by Facebook, said it had created machine-learning tools to identify and remove inauthentic activity.
Users with large numbers of followers are often able to attract lucrative sponsorship deals and sell products on their platform if they are considered to be influencers.
"Since the early days of Instagram, we have auto-detected and removed fake accounts to protect our community. Today's update is just another step in keeping Instagram a vibrant community where people connect and share in authentic ways," Instagram said.
Facebook says it has deleted around 750 million fake accounts in the last quarter.
Facebook has come under fire in recent months and years following a number of scandals, including the Cambridge Analytica data-sharing scandal and reports that Facebook posts played a role in influencing the US presidential election and the Brexit referendum in 2016.
