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That's why Bloomberg discloses the sponsored posts on Instagram as: (yes this was really sponsored by @mikebloomberg) in the description.

The entire message is often ironic, so other nonsponsored people are also using (yes this was really sponsored by @mikebloomberg) in their posts to make fun of Bloomberg, so although everyone is disclosing they're being paid, you don't actually know if someone is being paid or not.

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from what i've seen, the people "disclosing" they're being paid fall into two camps: the people who are actually getting paid, and are saying nice things about bloomberg. and the people who are sarcastically saying they're getting paid, and are definitely not saying nice things about bloomberg.

so it's pretty easy to distinguish who's using that disclosure honestly.

On Instagram influencer wannabees have been known to publish fake ads in order to make themselves look important enough to get high profile sponsers. I would imagine the same will could happen in elections.

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