How I automated my Instagram account using Machine Learning and Python | Hacker News Reader

How I automated my Instagram account using Machine Learning and Python

linkedin.com

100 pointsmfernandes33 comments

Anyone else think this is bullshit? It's just an outline of what an automated bot would have to do to work with some technical buzzwords mixed in.

Not saying it's not doable, nor that OP didn't actually do it... but I am tired of all these people posting technical fantasies to improve their social presence.

Yes, I don't understand why he supposedly kept the account 'secret' (why not run two, one for the demo and one for... whatever else!?).

It's doable for sure, but making an auto-posting bot for instagram isn't easy right now. How did he post without access to the business API, and I don't think the "Private API" is the answer, I've gone down that road and had a few accounts banned because of it. This is clearly just an attempt to boost their LinkedIn blogging ambitions.

Do you have any idea what got you banned?

Sudenote: I've heard that as a rule of thumb you shouldn't automate more than a few IG accounts from the same IP addr.

I think the fact I had four accounts, one personal, and three that were posting a lot of content twice a day contributed to one of the accounts getting banned. I think there are a few things that will get you banned, and it's not hard for IG to tell what actions are coming from the app and when they aren't. Uploading via Selenium or another headless browser emulating a mobile device seems to be the best way to do it without emulating an entire phone.

It is easy. It's super easy.

I developed a full product using private IG's APIs and developed a public API on top of it.

I shut down the project after a C&D from facebook, let just say they weren't too happy about it :P

After the first page or so I thought to myself the day when Instagram is a majority of bots posting, liking, following and unfollowing each other is not too far off, technically. I realize that's not the goal of IG, but...

Either way this isn't the first time, or probably the last, we see gaming IG this year. [0]

[0] https://medium.com/@chrisbuetti/how-i-eat-for-free-in-nyc-us...

Number of bots were actually much higher a few years ago. Lots of likes, comments and follows were all automated by brands. They did a good job to ban lots of bots. So it seems less likely that it is the future of Instagram.

Some people are already fed up with Instagram "influencers": https://people.com/food/ice-cream-truck-owner-vows-to-charge...

and the discussion about this post:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19554425

I automated my Instagram account when start use Bigbangram and Instazood bots. I like Bigbangram bot more because it has faster and can connect as many Instagram accounts to one account as need.

How does it post on Instagram though, thought the API does not include posting?

Interested in posting for Candy Japan as well, it’s tedious to post even though I already have the pics and descriptions for other use.

it probably does not use the api but rather just emulates a browser. The latter has much fore functionality but harder to code obviously.

It should include it now. Buffer and Hootsuite both allow scheduling content via Instagram. I imagine they are using the API

if you have biz account this api should work https://developers.facebook.com/docs/instagram-api/guides/co... ?

"The Content Publishing API is in closed beta with Facebook Marketing Partners and Instagram Partners only. We are not accepting new applicants at this time."

You'll find python libraries on GitHub, search for "InstaPy" for example. They work by reverse engineering the internal API used in apps.

You'll get rate limited and then banned pretty quickly with these in my experience. Having a real phone and using the strategies you see in clickfarms with emulated input is the best way.

It's fairly easy especially if there is a legacy mobile app for the site. In Instagram's case you just use an older version of the app which works for legacy devices and reverse engineer it. Most the mobile apps have their own API which they connect to, so you just pretend to be the mobile app and you have access to all the features. It also doesn't change much because mostly they can't risk breaking old installs with a high install count. Use a new IP address for each account you manage. Limit the number of actions and randomize it so 30 follows day 1, followed by 2 follows, maybe 10 posts, followed by 3 posts so it's not 3 posts per day every day.

My main issue I've had is a lot of the IPs (like 1 in every 15 or so) I went through were already banned from IG or suspicious enough to block me from posting.

you mean using an actual phone or something like genymotion?

Everything's is an API, if you scrape enough.

Use Planoly. You can preschedule content and will post it on your behalf.

You can post to Instagram from a desktop browser if you set per-site user agent to fake as mobile browser. Then you can use screen automation such as Selenium to integrate with the headless browser.

You can decompile the app and copy what the app is doing to send requests to post using the Instagram private api

Or just watch network traffic, right? Decompiling sounds a little heavy-handed.

Should probably automate an Instagram account to comment on each in post and encourage copyright owner to report the infringement.

This is so good!

For years other automated Instagram posting tools don't give you any help for the caption.

I've asked those service providers to open up their API so I could have a bot create a caption and add it to an entry on their calendar, before THEY post it to Instagram

There isn't much competition in this space, and their clientele is not that sophisticated. Companies will gladly pay an endless supply of cheap "social media managers" aka random Gen-Z "youngster gud with the compooters"

This would be a perfect alternative

how big of a program would this be? seems like a ton of work to code all this stuff and make it work . impressive

This is awesome work! I only wish his GitHub (or gitlab or whatever) repository was shared to learn from it.

Good for Philosophy mind experiment but is it real ? No GitHub meant no truth.

Good point. Do we take OPs word for it? Or not based on repository availability.

Not only is this literal kiddy level sh*t, it's not even machine learning!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com