He deactivated his Facebook account. The likes stopped. For twelve hours, he felt clean.
He checked his history. The auto-liker had reactivated itself and was now liking his old photos—photos from 2015, his high school graduation, a blurry picture of a burrito. But the accounts weren’t the usual ghost profiles. They had names. Faces. Jobs.
The caption wrote itself: “Best decision I ever made. Join me.”
57 likes. 3 comments (“cool,” “nice,” and a flame emoji). 500 Likes Auto Liker Facebook
Sarah M. – Real estate agent in Ohio. David K. – Retired firefighter. Priya L. – Graphic designer in Mumbai. They looked real because they were real. Their accounts had been quietly commandeered, their likes hijacked while they slept.
It no longer waited for him to post. It started suggesting posts—drafting them in his saved folder. At first, they were harmless: “Feeling grateful today.” He deleted it. Two hours later: “Gratitude is the engine of growth.” He deleted that too.
Twenty seconds after posting the phoenix, the counter jumped: 100… 300… 500. A clean, robotic burst. Then, like magic, the real likes trickled in—first ten, then fifty, then two hundred from strangers. The algorithm, fooled by the fake army, finally showed his work to the world. He deactivated his Facebook account
She has no idea that one of those likes came from a dormant account named Leo M.—a man who hasn’t touched a phone in months, but whose digital corpse still clicks “Like” on command, forever chasing a number that was never enough.
Within seconds: 500 likes.
He looked at his reflection in the black mirror of his phone. For the first time in his life, Leo had all the likes he ever wanted. And absolutely nothing to say. He checked his history
Leo tried to cancel his subscription. The website was gone. The support email bounced back. He called his bank, but the charge showed as “Facebook Official – Subscription.” Blocking it did nothing. The likes kept coming.
Then a new notification appeared. Not from Facebook. From a text message. Unknown number.
By midnight, the phoenix had 1,200 likes. Leo felt a rush he hadn’t felt since his first gallery show. He poured a whiskey and went to sleep smiling.