Editor's Note: This post was originally created by Spredfast before Spredfast and Lithium merged and became Khoros.

Your Instagram friends may not be the photographers they're making themselves out to be. Turns out that 11% of photos using the #nofilter hashtag on Instagram actually have a filter, a percentage that adds up to roughly 8.6 million photos. We pulled the data from the social network's public API. This API information includes filter data, and tested the last 100,000 images that included the #nofliter hashtag to get a sample from the platform. The most popular filter choice for #nofilter liars: Amaro, a filter that brightens the center of the picture. Roughly 15% of the fake #nofilter photos were actually using Amaro. Other popular #nofilter choices included Valencia (12%) and X-Pro II (10%). A Tumblr blog called "Filter Fakers" includes a feed of fake #nofilter photos, and even offers a "Fake Catcher," where people can upload an Instagram URL to see if a photo is truly filter-free. We put a few #nofilter users to the test, and nailed a few frauds, including a group of muscle men (Lo-Fi), a stoic couple wearing sunglasses (Lo-Fi) and a scenic (albeit filtered) look at the Tennessee countryside (Rise). 

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