Hi Suzy, thank you for your comment. Sorry I coudn't articulate it with more details. Our editors wrote a bulletin about it last year so I will link it for context. In a nutshell some opportunist in Fiverr sell gigs like guaranteeing writers to leave comments on their stories, clap and high light them so that with that artificial engagement they earn income from Medium. I escalated this to Medium and they ignored my feedback.

Here is the link to the bulletin https://medium.com/illumination/beware-of-illicit-sales-writers-resist-the-urge-to-purchase-guaranteed-claps-comments-e43f5eb8f17b

One of our senior editor also wrote a satire about it? It has links to Fiverr gigs.

https://medium.com/illumination/forget-researching-writing-just-start-scrolling-clapping-highlighting-35ca718ceaa3