Selling fake social media popularity continues to grow

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.

Social media is bringing new meaning to the phrase, “Don’t believe everything you see on the internet.”

Selling fake “popularity” on social media platforms is a growing business—one that the apps are trying to combat.

Over the past year, Twitter has been working to put an end to fake accounts.
An investigation by the New York Times has revealed just how much money can be made from delivering innocuous things, like YouTube video views or Instagram followers. One Canadian man, Martin Vassilev, has made $200,000 in 2018 alone after selling about 15 million phony views to channels on YouTube.

His company, 500views promises to boost organic traffic to customers’ videos by delivering a bunch of fake views that will boost their appeal and rankings in search results.

Inflating views violate terms of service, but it’s very hard to track down the perpetrators.

YouTube officials say fake views are an ongoing problem the company has been working on for many years.