Instagram has removed millions of Instagram fake accounts and inactive profiles, causing overnight follower drops for celebrities, influencers and private users.
The purge targeted spam accounts, bots and long-inactive profiles as part of efforts to improve platform integrity.
High-profile accounts saw some of the largest visible declines because of the volume of bot followers attached to them.
Kylie Jenner lost more than 15 million followers. BLACKPINK’s official account dropped by 10 million followers, while Cristiano Ronaldo lost 8 million. Selena Gomez’s account fell by about 6 million followers.
Smaller influencers reportedly lost between 2% and 5% of their followers overnight.
Insider reports said Instagram is using an AI-powered moderation system to identify coordinated inauthentic behaviour. Some valid profiles may have been mistakenly included in the crackdown.
It remains unclear whether Meta will issue a formal announcement on the latest wave of bans.
The purge has drawn support from users backing bot removal, while others raised concerns about inactive accounts belonging to deceased people.
Instagram allows users to request memorialisation for verified profiles of deceased users, though the platform does not convert all inactive accounts into memorialised profiles
