Instagram has been cracking down on spam and fake accounts. However, not everyone is pleased with the move. “Social media celebrities” are really angry with the move because they are seeing their follower count drop, showing how influential they really are on the photo-sharing website.
This is despite the company telling people since last week:
We’ve been deactivating spammy accounts from Instagram on an ongoing basis to improve your experience. As part of this effort, we will be deleting these accounts forever, so they will no longer be included in follower counts. This means that some of you will see a change in your follower count.
Talking to the International Business Times, a social media marketer who creates fake social media accounts says the “Instagram Rapture” could end up deleting between two million and ten million Instagram accounts from the site.
Developer Zach Allia has collated the figures in a graph to show the impact the purge on fake followers it has on the Top 100 Instagram accounts. Justin Bieber – the second most followed Instagram accounts – lost more than 3.5 million followers. Akon, the singer of “Smack That”, lost more than 56 percent of his Instagram followers.
Rapper Mase (who?) lost 1.33 million accounts in the purge, dropping his follower count from 1.6 million to around 270,000 followers. He responded by deleting his entire Instagram account.
On the non-celebrity front, Wellington Campos – the “Most Followed Non-Famous Person” on Instagram – saw a massive dip in followers. Campos, who is a “social business strategist” from Brazil, lost nearly 60 percent of his followers. Before the purge, he had 5.5 million Instagram followers. Now, he has 2.2 million. It looks likely that this “social business strategist” purchased most of his followers.
The biggest dip in fake followers was a user account called chiragchirag78. Previously having 3.6 million followers on Instagram, he now has eight followers. According to SocialBlade, the account only followed 22 accounts and uploaded two images since it was created. The account has since been deleted.
Many “social media celebrities” have gone to Instagram and Twitter to complain about the purge, asking Instagram to bring their followers back. Because, you know, apparently a number is more important than anything else.
“INSTAGRAM, YOU TOOK MANY FOLLOWERS AWAY FROM MY ACCOUNT. I want them back!” wrote Gabriela Guareschi in a comment on an Instagram photo.
“I LOST 1000+ FOLLOWERS,” another user, bernadette.gutierez, wrote.
Instagram being gay , taking my followers
— Shae (@_tyshae) December 19, 2014
I JUST LOST 300 FOLLOWERS ON INSTAGRAM WTF IS THIS SHIT
— JPT (@jptabanas) December 19, 2014
INSTAGRAM JUST TOOK AWAY 3 THOUSAND OF MY FOLLOWERS HOLY
— Devin Hayes (@DevinHayes_) December 18, 2014
I could write some rant about how these people are really, really stupid. However, I think this tweet pretty much sums up my reaction to the fact people are complaining about losing Instagram followers.
The entitled generation is leaving many comments about their lost fake followers. I really love @instagram for this. pic.twitter.com/sGmz6vo3yc
— Wesley Verhoeve (@wesleyverhoeve) December 18, 2014