The Big Instagram Losers Lost Millions
Instagram's cull of spam accounts and users not toeing the line over community guidelines has taken a huge bite out of the follow counts for many high-profile users, a pre/post "Instapurge" survey has revealed. Announced last week as part of the photo-sharing social network's ongoing war against fake profiles, the spam sweep took effect yesterday and wiped anything from a handful of followers from some user's accounts, to several million from others – including Instagram's own account, in fact. Among the biggest losers have been musicians, with Justin Bieber, Beyonce, and Taylor Swift all seeing their fan numbers tumble, but it's the non-celebrity users who have been most vocal in their outrage.
Justin Bieber was the biggest loser in percentage terms, according to numbers crunched by Zach Allia, with almost 15-percent of his followers deleted. Avid Instagram user Kim Kardashian followed behind, losing over 5.5-percent.
The rap and R&B industry was particularly affected, too, with Nicki Minaj, Chris Brown, and others also seeing their numbers plummet. At least one, rapper Mase, deleted his profile altogether, after seeing a million wiped out.
Instagram's own account saw the largest drop, however, with over 29-percent of its follower count disappearing overnight. It's also where many of the angriest users have voiced their ire, seemingly ignoring the fact that the profiles no longer active weren't real fans or friends in the first place.
Instead, the demand from hundreds has been "give me my followers back," unsurprisingly being met with stony silence from the Instagram team itself.
The cull may not be over, however, and it's not just peddlers of fake-followers and dubious sites and services who may still be at risk.
One of Instagram's core rules is that the photos posted should be taken by the user themselves, not taken from either copyrighted sources or even the public domain. That leaves a number of popular accounts – known for sharing works of art, interesting or striking images, or celebrity shots – at possible risk, should Instagram decide to take a hard line on its policies.