18-year-old sold bot likes and followers to politicians
An 18-year-old man sold artificial social media engagement to Hungarian politicians and influencers. The service involved increasing likes and views through fake accounts.
18-year-old sold bot likes and followers to politicians
An eighteen-year-old man operating under the pseudonym Máté sold fake social media activity to Hungarian public figures – reports 444.
The young man began working at age fifteen for a US-registered agency that managed the online presence of models creating adult content. There he operated Instagram accounts and directed users to subscription-based pages. He later wrote his own programmes, which allowed him to automate social media operations.
Since early 2025, political figures have also purchased from him. Speaking to the publication, he revealed that one of his most important clients was Dániel Deák, leading analyst at the 21st Century Institute. For one of his videos, Deák arranged to artificially boost viewership: automatic profiles watched the recording twice, which was sufficient for Facebook's algorithm to distribute the content more widely. The clip eventually reached more than five hundred thousand views, despite the fact that Deák's page had far fewer followers.
Máté offered likes, followers and views for sale. At the agency he received his pay in cryptocurrency, and the company had no issue with him being a minor. According to the article, the recruitment of models sometimes occurred in a manner resembling human trafficking: they were offered on internet platforms alongside their age, location and salary requirements.
Source: 444