The Non-violence project foundation is an NGO whose mission is to inspire, motivate, and engage people to prevent and reduce all forms of violence, both offline and online. Our brief was to bring their mission to life and prevent online violence from turning into physical violence, as numerous studies have shown that more people than ever are being radicalized on social platforms.

We looked towards Instagram as they only remove 18.8% of hate posts even though their guidelines state: “Follow the law. Instagram is not a place to support or praise terrorism, organised crime or hate groups.” They claim they don't have the technology needed to identify and remove it, but at the same time this content is proven to be the most engaging, which makes it profitable for Instagram to keep on the platform.

While Instagram claims they can’t detect and remove content automatically, their algorithm can detect and remove accounts that buy fake followers as that threatens their business model (fake followers are fake social media profiles that were set up with the intention of mass-following other social media accounts for money). So we decided to do something, never done before, to prove that the removal of hate is a question of money, not technology. We created Follow Their Leader - a crowdfunding platform where people could buy fake followers for hate-spreading accounts. Since Instagram's algorithm reacts to suspicious behaviour e.g. an unnatural rise in followers, we bought fake followers, which triggered Instagram’s algorithm. It shadow-bans the accounts - accounts already breaking the Terms & Conditions - and ultimately shut them down for good.

Follow Their Leader is based on research by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which found a direct link between Instagram's inaction against racist, homophobic, transphobic, sexist, and violent content and the profits it generates for Instagram. The Non-Violence Projects strategy was to not only expose how Instagram is actively not responding to the danger of extremists on their platform; but do something about it. Follow Their Leader used Instagram's own algorithms to prove that the removal of hate is a question of money, not technology. Because if the algorithm can easily auto-remove content with fake followers, why can’t they target hate? The campaign was launched quietly within the Non-Violence Project Foundation community to avoid alerting the extremist accounts that were being targeted. Later, an open letter to Instagram was released, which ran on all platforms, including a billboard truck parked outside their San Francisco headquarters.

Hateful content has been proven to be the most engaging form of content, which makes Instagram's algorithms promote it to more people. This results in more time spent on the platform - ultimately generating profit. However, fake followers hurt their business model (as advertisers don't want to pay for bots seeing ads). Using this insight we built a platform, where accounts that promote racism, homophobia, nazism, and violence were put up for sale.

People could then donate money, which we used to buy fake followers that would get the accounts shut down. The campaign was launched in sub-groups on Instagram, Whatsapp, Youtube, Facebook, Reddit, Messenger, Twitter, and Telegram to avoid alerting the targeted extremist accounts. Later, an open letter to Instagram was sent out on all social platforms and on a digital billboard truck that was placed in front of Meta’s headquarters in San Francisco.

The campaign not only revealed how Instagram ignores extremists and other hateful influencers on their platform, but it also did something about the problem. Follow Their Leader shadow-banned all the selected extremist accounts by mobilizing enough people to buy several hundred thousand fake followers. Follow Their Leader gave an NGO the opportunity to hold the world's largest social media company accountable for the content on their platform by using their own technology against them. And it worked! The campaign reached its goal as Meta has now agreed to meet with The Non-Violence Project Foundation to discuss how Instagram can enforce their own guidelines to avoid online violence from ever turning to physical violence, paving the way for Instagram to become a less hate-focused platform.