Instagram Users Lost A Ton Of Followers Because Of A Bug

Due to a bug, several Instagram users woke up to find out that their number of followers has dropped significantly, from thousands to millions of followers.

Users of the giant online platform ban to notice the sudden changes to their follower counts on this Tuesday night. Instagram then posted an official statement on its Twitter account to respond to this issue, stating that it is aware of this and trying to handle the problem as soon and quickly as possible.

Famous users like the actor Don Benjamin, YouTuber James Charles shared on their Twitter that their followers drop hundreds of thousands. Justin Bieber and Kim Kardashian lost 1.7 million and 1.9 million followers.

DownDetector which is a website monitoring issues of websites has been receiving reports from Instagram users about their followers’ drastic drops.

Matt Navarra, a social-media consultant, has been monitoring the affected “popular accounts.” He created a list which includes users who have lost over a million followers. They are Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylie Jenner, and Ariana Grande.

Many people assumed that the sudden drops in followers happened because Instagram wants to prevent “inauthentic behavior” from spreading on the platform. Back in November, the company said that it would take action against accounts that use bots and third-party apps to increase their popularity with fake followers and likes.

Instagram has said that no “follower purge” was taking place and blamed the major follower drops on a bug.