Up until now only the most popular and known profiles were able to get verified on Instagram which resulted in them getting a blue stamp next to their username.

Now Instagram has finally made it possible for anyone to apply for profile verification.

The emergence of the long-awaited option is associated with the scourge of false accounts, which serve trolls (often paid for by political forces) to spread confusion and chaos.

This was helped by the exceptional ineptitude of Instagram to verify the authenticity of accounts – it was easy to make a mistake and start following an account that was just a fake.

Instagram is introducing two new features to fight the fake accounts. The first is a form through which the verification procedure can be started.

It is true that the application reserves the right not to give you a blue stamp, even if it is proven that you are the legitimate owner of the account – Instagram must clearly have its own criteria for choosing who can have a confirmed account and who cannot.

It is not clear how long the verification procedure may take – the option is to be made available in the near future and a great deal of interest is to be expected, which means longer waiting times for a decision.

Instagram has also developed a tool that allows you to assess for yourself the type of account you are dealing with. The application can display additional information about the profile being checked, adding a comment to it to see if it is rather a trustworthy account or if it is a fake one.

Another useful third party app that could prevent you from following a fake account is the private Instagram viewer which lets you view private accounts without following them first.

You will see when exactly a given account was created, where its owner logs in, what advertisements he bought, with what other accounts he has the most in common with the observers, and whether the name of the profile has changed.