Justin Bieber has reportedly lost 3.5 million fake Instagram followers after the photo-sharing site wiped out all the spam and fake accounts in what was considered as the "Instagram Rapture." But Bieber is not the only one who lost a lot of followers because several other celebrities have seen their number of followers declined as well.
Among the hardest struck celebrities that lost a number of fake Instagram followers are Justin Bieber, Kendall and Kylie Jenner, Harry Styles and Ariana Grande. According to The Daily Mail, Instagram explained that the process is to remove deactivated spam accounts and accounts that violate their community guidelines.
In just 24 hours, Justin Bieber lost 3.5 million fake Instagram followers, which is almost 15 percent of his total number of fans, CNN Money reported. Kim Kardashian's followers also declined as 1.3 million were wiped out while Harry Styles said goodbye to more than 800,000 of his followers.
This week, Instagram went after spam in a major way causing some celebrities to freak out as their number of followers started plummeting. The photo-sharing site deleted millions of fake accounts in what they have called as the "Instagram Rapture."
Based on the data compiled by software developer Zach Allia, Justin Bieber is the leading celebrity that lost a lot of fake Instagram followers. However, some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry like Rihanna, Beyoncé and Taylor Swift were also victims and have shed large numbers of fake followers.
Instagram, the Facebook-owned company, has released a statement posted last week warning users that they will delete spam accounts, Global News reported.
"We want to maintain the best possible experience on Instagram, so we do our best to remove spam, fake accounts and other people and posts that don't follow our Community Guidelines," the photo-sharing posted. "When we remove accounts from Instagram that don't follow our Community Guidelines, you may see a decrease in your follower count. This shouldn't affect engagement from authentic accounts that like and comment on your posts."
Meanwhile, Instagram spokesperson Gabe Madway noted that the purged accounts had already been deactivated for a significant period of time for sending spam or otherwise violating the company's terms of service. According to The New York Times, Madway said that it is only now that the company has got around to delete all the dead accounts. He also added that the purges will be more continuous as fake and spam accounts were deleted.
While Justin Bieber seemed to be the biggest loser among celebrities after losing more than 3 million fake Instagram folowers, the photo-sharing site itself tops the list as it sheds more than 18.8 million followers or almost 30 percent of its total.
And since Justin Bieber lost millions of fake Instagram followers, Kim Kardashian takes the crown as the most followed individual, second is Beyoncé. While Bieber now ranks as third.
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