diff --git a/app/controllers/api/v1/follows_controller.rb b/app/controllers/api/v1/follows_controller.rb
index e01ae5c01cc11518e7f047143ea2fb1a62923c5d..5a2b2f32f3845fc94a3bd358909e8325135f7f0b 100644
--- a/app/controllers/api/v1/follows_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/api/v1/follows_controller.rb
@@ -10,6 +10,12 @@ class Api::V1::FollowsController < Api::BaseController
     raise ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound if follow_params[:uri].blank?
 
     @account = FollowService.new.call(current_user.account, target_uri).try(:target_account)
+
+    if @account.nil?
+      username, domain = target_uri.split('@')
+      @account         = Account.find_remote!(username, domain)
+    end
+
     render json: @account, serializer: REST::AccountSerializer
   end
 
diff --git a/spec/controllers/api/v1/follows_controller_spec.rb b/spec/controllers/api/v1/follows_controller_spec.rb
index b5e1d16dd7eea35e4ba2635c5069a83b55bdce41..ea9e76d68612a6aa51ed2273f5d1ad4aaca49cd5 100644
--- a/spec/controllers/api/v1/follows_controller_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/controllers/api/v1/follows_controller_spec.rb
@@ -42,5 +42,10 @@ RSpec.describe Api::V1::FollowsController, type: :controller do
     it 'subscribes to remote hub' do
       expect(a_request(:post, "https://quitter.no/main/push/hub")).to have_been_made
     end
+
+    it 'returns http success if already following, too' do
+      post :create, params: { uri: 'gargron@quitter.no' }
+      expect(response).to have_http_status(:success)
+    end
   end
 end