“Where were you when Instagram took over 3 million followers from Justin Bieber?”
That’s likely to be a frequently asked question in coming years as this past Thursday goes down in history as the day of the “Instagram Rapture.” If you’re not one of the 300 million users who are obsessed with Instagram, you didn’t fall victim to the recent purge in which Instagram deleted the profiles and accounts of millions of spam bots in order to create a better and more interactive experience for every Instagrammer. As a result, almost every user’s follower count decreased and chaos ensued.
The social media site warned us all last week that our follower numbers were likely to change, as it was in the process of cleaning up profiles that either violated the site’s community guidelines or aggressively advertised goods and services in user comment sections. According to Instagram, the purged accounts were ones that had already been deactivated due to their violations.
After everyone saw their follower counts plummet, many users then stormed the comment section of Instagram’s own profile in fits of rage.
“I LOST 500 FOLLOWERS. WTF INSTAGRAM,” wrote one user. “I had five thousand followers and now they’re gone and I will never get them back,” said another. Some users even tried to put together a campaign to unfollow Instagram, which has since caused Instagram to lose 30 percent of its following.
An infographic made by software developer Zach Allia notes which of the most followed users on Instagram were hit the hardest. Justin Bieber lost around 3 million followers which resulted in him losing his status as the most followed person to Kim Kardashian, who now ranks at the top. But the account that took the biggest hit was the profile of user chiragchirag78, who lost 99.9% of his followers. The user’s follower count went from 3.6 million to 8. The account has since been deleted.
Ahh, the priorities of our generation. How do you feel about the purge, collegiettes? Do you think Instagram should’ve just let the spam accounts be?