Temu dismantles $1B fake influencer ad network after Fortune expose
The shopping app shut down nearly all partnerships with suspect accounts on Meta within days of public exposure.
What to know
- Temu spent nearly $1 billion on ads with 73 fake influencer accounts across Instagram and Facebook in the UK and EU, generating 17 billion impressions through 1.4 million partnership ads.
- Within 4 days of Fortune's August 31 expose, Temu cut partnerships with fake accounts by 54 of the top 100, slashing partnership ad volume roughly in half.
- The app maintained spending on legitimate creators while eliminating the fake network, suggesting deliberate rather than accidental use of inauthentic accounts.
- Temu's ads in certain EU jurisdictions with strict misleading advertising laws (Ireland, Cyprus, Austria, Denmark) ceased almost entirely, hinting at regulatory pressure.
“Across all of its pages, weekly ads went from 166,523 in the week of 17 August to 147,013 in the week of 7 September. Partnership ads over the same weeks went from 115,114 to 64,008.”
Online Risk Labs, Social media research group · Fortune ↗
Temu E-commerce platformOnline Risk Labs (ORL) Czech-based social media research groupFortune Business publication
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Online Risk Labs publishes follow-up data on Temu's ad cutback
ORL released detailed metrics showing Temu's overall weekly ad count fell from 166,523 (week of August 17) to 147,013 (week of September 7), while partnership ads dropped from 115,114 to 64,008 over the same period. Partnership ads in Ireland, Cyprus, Austria, Denmark, Latvia, and Slovenia ceased almost entirely, likely due to strict misleading advertising laws in those jurisdictions.
“When you look at their Instagram accounts, you can see that they have not published any new posts/reels since two weeks or so. These are predominantly the accounts based in Russia, with some also based in the United States or China.”
— Vendula Prokůpková, Online Risk Labs manager · source -
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An investigation into Temu's advertising practices estimates that nearly $1 billion was spent on a Meta ad network that relied heavily on fake accounts. - https://www. gadgetreview.com/temus-962m-me ta-ad-network-collapsed-after-fake-account-report
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Largest fake account 'Ya Lili' stops posting entirely — The biggest fake account in Temu's network, @findgadgetswithme ("Ya Lili"), which had 183,000 Instagram followers and ran 278,000 Temu ad campaigns during the study period, ceased all posting. By September 4, only five residual Temu ads remained on her account from previously scheduled buys.
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Temu abruptly halts advertising with fake accounts after exposure — By September 4—just four days after Fortune's story—90 accounts featured zero Temu advertising. Of the top 100 accounts, 54 stopped using partnership ads almost immediately after August 31. Overall partnership ad volume nearly halved, while Temu maintained its ad budget for legitimate creators.
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background
Fortune exposes Temu's $1B network of fake influencer accounts on Meta — Fortune published an investigation by Online Risk Labs showing Temu spent nearly $1 billion on partnership ads with fake influencer accounts across Instagram and Facebook targeting the UK and 27 EU countries. The research found that 73 of the top 100 accounts promoting Temu were probably fake, with nonsensical names and bases in China, Russia, Bangladesh, or Iran. These 100 accounts ran 1.4 million partnership ads reaching 17 billion impressions. At publication, Temu was running 4,900 partnership campaigns daily on the network.