The rise and rise of burner accounts Anonymity is the new luxury, but you can't quit social media

In recent years, so-called burner accounts have spread across social media — secondary profiles with no obvious connection to the identity of whoever runs them, lacking any content, recognizable profile picture, or real username. These are tools that allow their users to observe, comment, and interact with other users more freely than they would on their main account, though they are often used for purposes that are more or less hostile. Dazed has explored the phenomenon in depth, gathering anonymous testimonies from people who regularly make use of them.

The topic came back into the spotlight when speculation spread online that the Instagram profile @bidness_nonya belonged to American actor Channing Tatum. The account, which featured a green butterfly as its profile picture and the bio "nosy…in private," posted comments against his ex-partner Zoë Kravitz and her new boyfriend Harry Styles, while praising Tatum himself — who was, incidentally, the only follower of @bidness_nonya. The actor has denied being its owner.

How and why do people use secondary accounts on Instagram?

As far back as the late 2010s, many teenagers had at least one alternative account, known as a finsta (from fake Instagram). Unlike the main profile — polished and visible to everyone — a finsta is usually private and goes by a different name, making the owner difficult to identify. As one of the people interviewed by Dazed notes, however, anonymity can become a "slippery slope": hiding behind an unrecognizable profile can encourage behavior that people would be unlikely to engage in under their own identity.

Today, many users turn to these tools to express political opinions they consider controversial, to keep tabs on exes, old friends, or colleagues, and to engage in rage-baiting — the practice of provoking other users purely for the pleasure of generating outraged reactions or picking fights. One user, for example, told Dazed they went so far as to get into an online clash with Chris Brown and his fans, which ended with the singer reporting their account and subsequently blocking them.

And what about finsta accounts?

While for many users a secondary profile is primarily a way to avoid being recognized, for some celebrities it can also become a means of strengthening their bond with their most devoted fans while maintaining a space that is, in some respects, private — invisible to the vast number of followers on their main account. For a long time, these profiles remained genuinely anonymous, but the situation has partly changed: more and more famous figures are using them in a semi-public way, to the point that more attentive users are aware of their existence and can, in some cases, follow them without too much difficulty. More broadly, accounts of this kind make fans feel part of an inner circle and give them the impression of following a real person rather than a public figure.

Among the most well-known finsta examples are the secondary profiles of actress Rachel Sennott and Pierpaolo Piccioli, who on his alternative account shares selfies and behind-the-scenes images from runway shows. Charli XCX, meanwhile, reportedly opened her first finsta in 2024 during the Brat tour: with this profile, initially called @360_brat and later renamed @b.sides, the singer posted, among other things, previews and hints about new projects and events. Other celebrities use their finstas for more personal or tongue-in-cheek projects: Lorde has one dedicated to reviewing fried onion rings (@onionringsworldwide), American actor Cole Sprouse uses his to post photos of people trying to photograph him on the sly, while Gigi Hadid long used hers to share her analog photography.