Full Breakdown
Temu Cuts Funding for Massive Network of Fake Influencer Accounts on Meta Platforms
By Drooid · · How we work
Core Event
After a Fortune investigation revealed a large-scale network of inauthentic influencer accounts used to run partnership ads for Temu, the Chinese-owned e-commerce platform sharply reduced its spending on those accounts. Within days, more than half of the top 100 accounts stopped receiving Temu ads, and the overall volume of partnership ads fell by roughly 45 %.
Background & Context
Online Risk Labs (ORL), a Czech-based social-media research group, examined Temu’s advertising activity over a 16-month period ending in April 2026. The study found that about 73 % of the 100 influencers with the most Temu ads were likely fake, operating from China, Russia, Bangladesh or Iran and frequently changing names. These accounts participated in over 1.4 million partnership ads, reaching an estimated 17 billion impressions.
Data & Statistics
- Temu’s creator network comprises more than 12,000 accounts, a mix of legitimate and fake profiles.
- The largest fake account, “Ya Lili,” had 183,000 Instagram followers and 129,000 Facebook followers, appearing in 278,000 Temu campaigns (?225 campaigns per day) during the study period. By early September only five of her ads remained.
- Weekly ad counts dropped from 166,523 in the week of August 17 to 147,013 in the week of September 7, according to ORL. Partnership-specific ads fell from 115,114 to 64,008 over the same span.
- Partnership ads virtually disappeared in Ireland, Cyprus, Austria, Denmark, Latvia and Slovenia.
Official Statements & Responses
Temu and Meta did not respond to requests for comment. ORL manager Vendula Prokupková told Fortune that many of the fake accounts stopped posting entirely by early September and that their profile pages no longer display country information. ORL noted that Temu’s overall ad budget appears to have been maintained for legitimate creators despite the sharp cut in partnership ads.
Impact & Outlook
The abrupt reduction in fake-account spending coincided with stricter enforcement of misleading-advertising laws in several EU jurisdictions, where violations can lead to criminal penalties or consumer lawsuits. While Temu continues to run ads through verified creators, the episode highlights the vulnerability of partnership-ad programs to large-scale inauthentic activity and may prompt Meta and advertisers to tighten vetting processes in the future.
