These users follow active members, but do not partake in liking, commenting, messaging, and posting.
[1] Commercial services provide the ability to buy Instagram followers, most of which are ghosts.
[5] Another article in the NYT, from January 2018, discussed the economics of selling ghost followers on Twitter and other platforms.
[6] The social media company Rantic has been identified as a provider of ghost followers, generating Instagram accounts via bots.
[7] The International Business Times reported in 2014 that Rantic was selling fake, bot generated followers and likes, in a manner violating Instagram's terms of service.