Instragram has released an update that prevents users from tagging themselves in Singapore when they're not there in a bid to go viral.
The update to its algorithm comes after a swathe of users realised geo-tagging their posts with Singapore gave them an increased chance of being on the Explore page, which helps boost likes on a post and follower numbers.
Instagram has admitted that a bug in its algorithm "impacted engagement" when posts were tagged in Singapore, giving them a greater chance of being seen by more people.
Dozens of "influencers", people with large numbers of followers, began the trend on the photo sharing social network with posts appearing to be from "Singapore, Singapore" even when the user was far from the South East Asian country.
Several celebrities and verified users told Mic about the hack, with one saying: "You keep Singapore up for 12 hours, then you change it.
"It's fully ridiculous and dumb, but it works. I'm not sure why or if it's just because it's become a meme, but the 'Singapore, Singapore' posts do way better."
However the trend left some users perplexed as to why so many people they followed were in Singapore all of a sudden.
Christian Collins, an influential Instagram user with 3.8 million followers, tagged a post that said, "Always a good time at Disneyland" in the Asian country.
It is not clear how the bug originated, but some users have speculated that it's because Instagram's algorithmic feed is still fairly new in Singapore, meaning it is easier to get to the top of the feed with a geotag here.
But the "Singapore boost" helped users with engagement in countries around the world, including the US, as well as in Singapore.
To exploit the bug users would set "Singapore, Singapore" as their location after creating a post and then watch it attract high levels of interest. They would then remove the misleading tag after a day or so.
As the tags have now been removed on many of the posts it is hard to see which may have received an unfair boost.
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