Millions of Instagram influencers data scraped and exposed from a Mumbai-based Chtrbox database

TechCruch has detailed massive database leak containing contact information of millions of Instagram influencers, celebrities and brand accounts has been found online. The database, hosted by Amazon Web Services, was left exposed and without a password allowing anyone to look inside. At the time of writing, the database had over 49 million records — but was growing by the hour. From a brief review of the data, each record contained public data scraped from influencer Instagram accounts, including their bio, profile picture, the number of followers they have, if they’re…

Facebook, Instagram hit by 13hr outage, Zuckerberg not stepping down as chairman

Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp were yesterday hit by a 13-hour outage that affected some users throughout the world, the company confirmed. The outage comes at a particularly sensitive time when businesses use Facebook and Instagram to promote pivotal Black Friday sales, some of which have already started. “Earlier today, a server configuration caused intermittent problems across all apps globally creating a degraded experience for users. The issue has since been resolved, we are back to 100 percent for everyone and we’re sorry for any inconvenience,” a Facebook spokesperson told ABC…

Instagram is making a bold move on fake likes and follows

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Instagram is preparing for a huge purge on automated apps people use to leave spammy comments or follow then unfollow others in hopes of growing their audience. Any fake likes and follows from accounts that use third-party services to get more engagement are going to now be removed the company announced as part of policy change today. Instagram says, We’ve built machine learning tools to help identify accounts that use these services and remove the inauthentic activity. This type of behavior is bad for the community, and third-party apps that…

Hackers Are Snatching High-Profile Instagram Accounts

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In the Wild West of “influencer” marketing, there are few protections and plenty of easy marks. Hackers sometimes create their own fake brands to phish influencers, but often they pretend to be representatives from real companies, this is according to a new report by TheAtlantic “They’ll set up some sort of username that’s something that seems like it would be legit, like @LuluLemonAmbassadors,” he said. “They’ll use all the company logos, make it seem as legit as possible, make the bio seem normal. Use the company’s mission statement. It’s super…

Instagram implements artificial intelligence tools to beat cyber bullies

Instagram is betting on artificial intelligence weapons to battle cyber bullying, using AI to scan photos for abusive content at the Facebook-owned service. Instagram chief Adam Mosseri Tuesday said artificial intelligence is being used to detect signs of bullying and then automatically flag content for review by staff from the image-oriented social network. “This change will help us identify and remove significantly more bullying,” Mosseri said in a blog post. ” Online harassment is a big problem, with 40 percent of all people on the internet having reported experiencing some form of…

Instagram Is Down Worldwide, Users Unable To Log In

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Instagram seems to be down for a lot of users worldwide. Its website and app both are inaccessible at the momentum.  More than 1,000 people worldwide have reported problems with the Facebook-owned platform early on Wednesday morning. Attempts to log in on a desktop browser are producing a blank page with the message: ‘5xx Server Error’. On the mobile app users are being told that their feed cannot be refreshed. Frustrated users expressing dissatisfaction on Twitter suggested the Instagram outage stretched across the globe with the app not working in…

Facebook-owned Instagram to allow users to apply for verification

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Users will soon apply for verification on Instagram as the social media giant platform rolls out a number of new features aimed at increasing transparency and engagement. Instagram said it was rolling out the feature locally to clear the air around its verification process which had become the centrepiece of several conspiracy theories including paid-for blue badges and fake influencer accounts. “Our community asked us for more transparency around this issue, and with today’s announcement we’re sharing clear details about verification requirements and eligibility criteria,” Instagram’s strategic partner manager APAC,…

Instagram’s Video Hub Dubbed IGTV Set to Launch Tomorrow

The Instagram longer-form video hub that’s launching tomorrow is called IGTV and it will be part of the Explore tab, according to multiple sources. Instagram  has spent the week meeting with online content creators to encourage them to prepare videos closer to 10-minute YouTube vlogs than the 1-minute maximum videos the app allows today. Instagram is focusing its efforts around web celebrities that made their name on mobile rather than more traditional, old-school publishers and TV studios that might come off too polished and processed. The idea is to let these creators,  who have a knack for this…

Instagram might soon let you post videos up to an hour long

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Instagram is considering doing away with video length constraints, according to The Wall Street Journal, which published a report about “a new feature” that would let users post long-form clips of up to an hour. That would open new creative flexibility for users and bring Instagram closer in line with YouTube and its own parent company, Facebook. The plan is described as tentative, so Instagram could ultimately decide against radically extending the maximum running time of videos on its platform. The new feature “will focus on vertical video” according to…

Instagram is letting users share posts directly to their stories

The line between Instagram posts and stories is getting even thinner today. There’s a new feature that will let users share posts — both from their own account and from public accounts they follow — directly to their story as a sticker. Instagram imagines the feature will be used to help promote friends and brands you like on your own story, making it easier to share, say, a band’s tour announcement with your followers. (It’s easier than saving or screenshotting the image itself since people are going to do it…