[Bug fix arrival time] Lost Instagram followers? Here's why Instagram is deleting follower accounts (it's not a purge)

There are new updates that have been added at the bottom of the story….

“Mine dropped 500 followers,” one Instagram user said on Twitter today. The other one quoted that tweet to add “mine dropped almost 1000 followers.”

https://twitter.com/kennajeraa/status/1095543135935971329
https://twitter.com/yiyieeen/status/1095563041305808896

These are normal users, but what about influencers? Well, looks like they are also having similar experiences. For example, celebrity stylist James Charles said they lost almost half a million followers.

And fans are pointing out that Ariana Grande’s as well as Selena Gomez follower count on Instagram also dropped by millions.

https://twitter.com/ArianaNewsFact/status/1095549313026011141
https://twitter.com/grandetears/status/1095574751806963720
https://twitter.com/_selenagomezecu/status/1095524643275001856

And the list goes on…

https://twitter.com/shelbytriglia/status/1095540036353679361
https://twitter.com/imonafelix/status/1095552764510392326
https://twitter.com/Ashinaina1/status/1095553172603424768
https://twitter.com/SuccessfullMin1/status/1095568941814972416

Some are pointing out that even Instagram’s own account is down by millions.

So what the hell is happening? Well, while we do not have an official word from Instagram yet, it does look like the Facebook-owned social media company is going after spam, bot, or inactive accounts.

https://twitter.com/cruelladevu/status/1095543787521069056
https://twitter.com/mermaidslade/status/1095543522411696128
https://twitter.com/eztaughtme/status/1095542070436089856

Going by reports, this latest round of purge started only a few hours ago. But nothing can be said for sure as it could be that Instagram may have been deleting accounts for quite some time now, just that they have suddenly shifted gears now.

Anyway, we’ll have to wait and see what the company has to say on this.

Not the first time

This is not the first time something like this has happened over at Instagram. Back in November last year, the Facebook-owned social media platform announced they’re reducing inauthentic activity on Instagram.

Recently, we’ve seen accounts use third-party apps to artificially grow their audience. Starting today, we will begin removing inauthentic likes, follows and comments from accounts that use third-party apps to boost their popularity

We’re taking a number of steps to limit this kind of unwelcome behavior. Accounts we identify using these services will receive an in-app message alerting them that we have removed the inauthentic likes, follows and comments given by their account to others. We will also ask them to secure their account by changing their password

You can read the complete announcement here.

Have already been deleting fan accounts

The clean-up of sorts at Instagram apparently started a few weeks ago, when we highlighted a lot of reports of fan accounts being deleted.

https://twitter.com/buteraxgab/status/1084771448785387520
https://twitter.com/ayydweeba/status/1084744013020889090

https://twitter.com/starsmalec/status/1084766984397574144
https://twitter.com/tshollanderr/status/1084358243197939714

Even an extremely popular PewDiePie fan account dubbed ‘classicpewds’ – which had over 100,000 followers, including PewDiePie himself – was deleted after being reported.

Nat’s backup account (classic.pewds) was also deleted by Instagram. She has since been urging followers to get the culprit – who reported both her accounts – deleted from Instagram.

What’s more, even social media star Zach Clayton calls out Instagram over fan accounts deletion.

More on that here.

Instagram not the only service to do such clean-ups

Apart from Instagram, other social media platforms are also part this ‘seasonal’ cleanup. For example, Twitter also started to wipe out fake accounts and bots. It directly affects celebrities and political figures as they are losing huge number of followers.

The number of Twitter followers is often considered as a prime parameter of popularity. But allegedly most of them are not even operated actual human beings.

Twitter wants to come up with an cleaner solution, which removes the external driving factors that can motivate the voters, especially when the election season is here in US and India.

In fact, the result of the crackdown (which is running since 2018’s November) is quite astonishing as Indian PM Narendra Modi lost around 100,000 followers post the crackdown.

https://twitter.com/divyaspandana/status/1094840802994520065

Could this be a glitch? We have now come across some user reports that indicate Instagram may be glitching for some:

https://twitter.com/Pinkabell78/status/1095611582334361605

https://twitter.com/halalbeautie/status/1095556688160219136

https://twitter.com/vatsal10_98/status/1095550748522434560

https://twitter.com/nathansugIy/status/1095570604009283586

We’ve reached out to Instagram to know what they have to say on the matter, and will update the story as and when they respond. Until then, use the comments section below to share your current Instagram experience.

Check out the video embedded in the tweet below where James Charles talks about the ongoing Instagram issue:

Reports of more celebs losing millions of followers:

https://twitter.com/Jancyrgo/status/1095577030458916865
https://twitter.com/doublegiforce/status/1095598666264571904

This user says updating the app brings things back to normal.

Try it out and let us know in the comments section below if this workaround fixes the problem.

Meanwhile, fake messages like the following are in circulation. We urge you not to take them seriously.

I don't know if this is fake news or not, but I took this from one of the post of my Instagram friend. This might explain everything about this disturbing trend of IG deleting accounts, especially bot accounts, as well as real people accounts. This explains the lost in followers. pic.twitter.com/Z9qvxieP0w

— Alchemo Lozano (@Alchem0_Lozan0) February 13, 2019

Popular social media consultant Matt Navarra has shared link to a doc which lists a continuously updated list of popular accounts who lost followers.

Actress Joan Collins has strongly voiced her concern over the ongoing purge.

Here’s an official word on the matter. Instagram says this is an issue and they are working to fix it.

We’re aware of an issue causing a change in account follower numbers for some people right now. We’re working quickly to fix this

So turns out this may not be an intentional accounts purge. Rest assured, we’ll update the story with more details as and when something newsworthy happens.

This user says they got their lost followers back after a while.

https://twitter.com/peachcait_/status/1095684663652376578

Has Instagram started rolling out a fix? Well, we aren’t sure at the moment.

We have got a tip from one of our readers saying you can’t even follow back an affected account.

We’re not sure how widespread this specific problem is, but it does seem related to the overall bigger issue. Here’s one more such report:

Let us know in comments below if you are facing this problem as well.

Some users are reporting their follower count has in fact gone up.

https://twitter.com/ColleenMLarson/status/1095724111983128576
https://twitter.com/luvmygrandehx/status/1095710332562092033

A few hours ago, Instagram has shared an ETA for the bug fix. Here’s what the company says:

Update: we’re expecting to have this issue resolved by 9 a.m. PST tomorrow. We understand this is frustrating, and our team is hard at work to get things back to normal

The Instagram app is now directly informing users about this bug through a notification.

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