Some teens were making thousands of dollars a month running Instagram accounts that shared memes. Then the photo-sharing network shut their accounts down. MarketWatch spoke to one of those affected.
The purge has cost some users thousands of dollars. Ben told MarketWatch his pages earned him $4,000 a month and were his only salary. He made the money through selling shoutouts: Users looking to grow their pages paid Ben to promote those pages on his account. “I don’t have another job as Instagram paid in one week what I would get in one month of an actual job,” Ben said. He did not think it would last forever, however. Ben saved most of the money he earned from his page, but is now looking for another source of income.
Check It Out: Instagram Meme Account Purge Costs Teenagers Thousands of Dollars