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Hacking. Disinformation. Surveillance. CYBER is Motherboard's podcast and reporting on the dark underbelly of the internet.
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Previously Instagram has sent cease and desist letters to members of the OG Users community, who sell or help facilitate the trade of stolen or parked usernames on the social network. Bykhun clarified he wasn't part of OG Users, and that his company didn't sell accounts.Motherboard then found Bykhun was the CEO of LikeUp.Me, according to his personal website. On that, he claims LikeUp.Me generated around $100,000 in revenue in 2020.The site appears to have used a Chrome extension which promises users free likes and followers and is also called LikeUp.Bykhun seemingly blocked Motherboard on Telegram when asked for comment on LikeUp.Me.A Facebook spokesperson told Motherboard in an email that Facebook sent a cease and desist to LikeUp.Me, that fake engagement violates the platform's rules, and that Facebook takes action against such companies when discovered.Subscribe to our cybersecurity podcast CYBER, here.Do you have any more information on the sale of fake social media engagement? We'd love to hear from you. Using a non-work phone or computer, you can contact Joseph Cox securely on Signal on +44 20 8133 5190, Wickr on josephcox, OTR chat on jfcox@jabber.ccc.de, or email joseph.cox@vice.com.