Certain celebrities lost millions of followers in the past 24 hours.
A number of well-known influencers on Instagram are confused as to why they lost a substantial amount of followers on their social media account overnight.
This is because Instagram have deleted millions of accounts, which they believe to be inauthentic or “bots”.
A purge took place between Tuesday and Wednesday, which saw plenty of popular Instagram accounts lose thousands and even millions of followers.
Eagle-eyed Insta users noticed that Ariana Grande lost close to 3 million followers, while Selena Gomez lost almost 2 million.
In a blog post, the social media platform said that the process behind determining whether or not an account was inauthentic was relatively straightforwards:
“We’re taking a number of steps to limit this kind of unwelcome behaviour. Accounts we identify will receive an in-app message alerting them that we’ve removed the inauthentic activity given to their account from others. We will also ask them to secure their account by changing their password. Accounts that use these types of apps share their username and password, which is sometimes used to give inauthentic likes, follows and comments to others.”
Make-up artist James Charles is one of many people who has taken to Twitter since the purge to voice their confusion:
why did I just lose over half a million followers @instagram wyd sis
— James Charles (@jamescharles) February 13, 2019
Oh yes the purge of IG followers was real for everyone today
— AJA (@ajaqueen) February 13, 2019
Very odd seeing some influencers upset over losing fake followers on Instagram. Fake followers = no engagement = lower overall engagement rate
— Brett Leppard (@Leppard) February 13, 2019
Nothing like losing 1000 followers on @instagram overnight!! Cheers Instagram….a whole months work DOWN THE PAN ?? #instagram #followers #clearout pic.twitter.com/OpwB3KdNhT
— Emily Hartridge (@emilyhartridge) February 13, 2019
Influencers are in a panic this morning after Instagram gets rid of all bot & inactive followers globally. But surely a more real, active & engaging follower base is better then an overinflated fake one? ??♂️
— Alex SHAQ Shafiq ? (@InkedUpSHAQ) February 13, 2019
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