Update: Instagram has acknowledged the bug via Twitter and apparently resolved the same.
We’re aware of an issue that is causing a change in account follower numbers for some people right now. We’re working to resolve this as quickly as possible.
— Instagram (@instagram) February 13, 2019
Are you an Instagrammer? If yes, do spare a moment and check your followers count. Why you may ask? Well, Instagram seems to be on a cleansing drive and is perhaps deleting Ghost Followers and inactive accounts.
These lurkers could be real people or bots who follow active members but do not partake in liking, commenting, messaging and posting.
The Instagrammers or ‘Igers’ have posted online claiming the sudden decline in their follower count. “Mine dropped 500 followers,” one Instagram user said on Twitter today. The other one quoted that tweet to add “mine dropped almost 1000 followers.”
is instagram glitchin’ my followers just dropped to 11.1k… not a bigdeal to me but even my dm isn’t working so uhh 🤷🏻♂️
— ken najera (@kennajeraa) February 13, 2019
Famous Internet Personality, Celebrity Stylist and American Social Media Influencer said his account lost almost half a million followers.
why did I just lose over half a million followers @instagram wyd sis
— James Charles (@jamescharles) February 13, 2019
And even bigger names like Selena Gomez’s and Don Benjamin’s follower count also dipped by millions, as per fans. We would be verifying the stats from our sources.
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Instagram started after several years to deleted accounts that don't fulfill her rules from her system, Selena Gomez lost about 2 million followers pic.twitter.com/Kuwa2LoHfI
— Selena Gomez News (@_selenagomezecu) February 13, 2019
Instagram playin them games again. Smh how they gunna delete almost 200k of my followers. Smh
— Don Benjamin (@ItsDonBenjamin) February 13, 2019
And Many More
This new bug or update seems to have surfaced just hours ago and the Twitterati is flooded with agitated and confused users reporting the fall in their follower count.
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Is @instagram glitching for anyone? My Instagram was at 166k and now it’s at 158k …. I’m so confused
— Shelby (@shelbytriglia) February 13, 2019
Instagram deleting many fake instagram ids.. Is that reason why ashi and Randeep followers decreased.. But it looks impossible 😶 ashi Ka 321 se 309k and Randeep 324 se 306k #YehUnDinonKiBaatHai pic.twitter.com/44AcwyUy3Z
— Piya21- (@Ashinaina1) February 13, 2019
https://twitter.com/vatsal10_98/status/1095550748522434560
Recently, there have been reports on celebrity fan accounts being deleted on Insta.
@instagram please stop deleting fan accounts. We’re not impersonating our idols, we’re supporting them. People work hard for those accounts and for most of us, it’s our happy place. Please don’t take that away from us.
— rach #justiceformj (@buterasmj) January 14, 2019
The Photography Platform had posted an article titled, “Reducing Inauthentic Activity on Instagram.”
Recently, we’ve seen accounts use third-party apps to artificially grow their audience. Every day people come to Instagram to have real experiences, including genuine interactions. It is our responsibility to ensure these experiences aren’t disrupted by inauthentic activity. Starting today, we will begin removing inauthentic likes, follows and comments from accounts that use third-party apps to boost their popularity. We’ve built machine learning tools to help identify accounts that use these services and remove the inauthentic activity. This type of behavior is bad for the community, and third-party apps that generate inauthentic likes follows and comments violate our Community Guidelines and Terms of Use.
So far the Facebook Owned Social Media Juggernaut hasn’t officially commented on the recent developments.
If the online claims are true, then Instagram could be cleaning the purchased followers and scammers from the platform who ruin the overall experience of the real active users.
I love you instagram