Initial reports about a possible Instagram bug had begun to surface all over the internet a day before Valentine’s Day when users woke up and found many of their followers missing from the total count.
Many guessed the problem to be a step taken by Instagram to remove all those accounts which were either inactive or could be categorized as spam, and for some, this was not such a big deal as it would’ve improved their engagement rate which comes from active followers.
However, when it comes to big brands and celebrities, who have millions of followers on the social media platform, it was a major setback as they invest a lot of money and resources into building up a strong following on Instagram.
Celebrities Impacted
The celebrities who reportedly lost followers include the likes of Kylie Jenner as well as Ariana Grande. According to figures reported by Cosmopolitan, both of these celebrities ended up losing around 3 million followers on their pages, each.
For Jenner, this meant that she saw her following dip to 124 million, from the 127 million she had the day before. For Grande, it was a fall to 142 million from an impressive 145 million. Selena Gomez also witnessed a decrease of 2 million followers from her Instagram profile.
Eventually Resolved
After distress calls came in from around the world from Instagram users who had been impacted by this, Instagram released a statement first clarifying that the issue was, in fact, a bug and not an intended action by the company, and second reassuring all affected users that they were working as fast as they could to resolve the issue so that users could carry on with their social media presence in the usual manner.
This statement came on Twitter, and a little while later another statement by the company surfaced in which it stated that by 12 PM Eastern Time the next morning, which was the 14th of February, the issue was expected to be resolved. This obviously offered a lot of comfort to the affected users, who were otherwise worried whether they had lost a significant portion of their following forever.
The issue was eventually resolved by the stated time, judging by the fact that the celebrities mentioned above got back the followers they had lost to the bug.
A Time To Clean Up
While losing followers is a very big deal to major brands as well as influencers, who have grown to depend on platforms like Instagram to reach their target audience instantaneously, there is no doubt that a clean-up is definitely needed.
For example, last November it was brought to light by Instagram that many accounts had been created on the platform by third-party applications simply to increase the number of followers on certain profiles.
Apparently, users had begun using third-party applications to simply increase their number of followers with fake accounts, most likely in an effort to generate a domino effect and gather a larger following on the platform.
This is done in an effort to emerge as a social media influencer, which has become a lucrative profession in recent times as influencers are then approached and paid by brands to promote their products on the platform. The more followers an account has, the more brands are willing to pay as promotion fee.
Of course, this meant a loss in engagement between brands and real users, and in an effort to make the platform more engaging, Instagram released a statement suggesting that it would be removing all such fake accounts from its database.
Hence, when this new bug hit the number of followers on profiles, many users naturally assumed that Instagram had put its purging plans into action.
Instagram is not the only social media platform taking measures to remove fake accounts from its platform. Facebook, Instagram’s parent company, has also set checks in its algorithm to ensure fake profiles don’t function. Twitter has also been wiping away accounts which can be identified, without any doubt, to be fake accounts.