Instagram Confirms Bug Suspending Accounts And Slashing Follower Counts

Something strange seems to be happening over at Instagram, and it could just be the spooky season taking its toll on the app, or perhaps Meta has decided to do some serious cleaning up. Many users are taking to other social media platforms to report various problems, and so far, no one knows what's really going on, but Instagram has already acknowledged that there is a problem. One thing is for sure — you know it's serious when Instagram users migrate over to Twitter in order to complain.

Instagram continues to be a very popular app, even though it's no longer at its peak. It has plenty of users that amassed thousands (or hundreds of thousands or even millions) of followers. For many, the follower count is completely inconsequential, but some users, especially Instagram influencers, rely on their follower count in order to build up their profile and make money. It's the latter type of users that were hit the hardest by this development because, in unexplainable ways, some follower counts have dropped significantly. 

That's not the only thing that's going on with Instagram right now, though. New tweets about the problem are popping up faster than they can be read, suggesting that the scale of the problem is rather large. Below, we'll explore what we know and try to figure out what's happening.

If the reports on Twitter are to be believed, it appears that Instagram has suddenly decided to suspend a bunch of accounts — and by "a bunch" we mean thousands. Many tweets about it are humorous, such as this user "apologizing to their Wi-Fi after finding out Instagram is down," but there are also plenty of voices crying out for help after their account seems to have gotten suspended for no reason at all. Some users got banned for 30 days while others got suspended for an indefinite amount of time. The one common thing between all these suspensions is that many of these people have no idea why they were taken off Instagram in the first place.

The rising suspension count also affects the users who are still on the platform, because they are losing followers en masse. As seen in this tweet compilation posted by Alex Kantrowitz, some users report follower losses in the hundreds or even thousands. Many suspect that Instagram is removing fake accounts or bots, but even if those followers were of no value (assuming they were bots), the affected users are concerned. "Is Instagram crashing? I'm losing hundreds of followers in minutes. All my hard work is gone," said one desperate Instagram refugee on Twitter. 

Instagram acknowledged the problem on its Instagram Comms Twitter account, but it didn't say anything definite. Will the affected users be getting their accounts back, and will those follower counts climb back up again? It's impossible to say, but it certainly looks like a rough time on Instagram right now.