Detection of Fake Instagram Accounts via Machine Learning Techniques

Abstract

This paper focuses on the detection of fake accounts on Instagram and proposes a novel solution that aims to address this problem. More specifically, a machine learning-based solution is introduced that can be employed by Instagram-based applications to combat this phenomenon. To accomplish this, publicly available data from Instagram users are collected and processed. After making the necessary feature additions to and removals from these data, they are fed into machine learning algorithms with the aim of detecting fake Instagram accounts. The interest of the results presented in this study lies in their comparability with the results of other similar studies, with the difference that fewer input features have been used. This addresses significant research challenges regarding the performance of and confidence in obtained results in this specific problem domain.

Keywords

• social media
• Instagram
• detection of fake accounts
• machine learning
• artificial intelligence