This Thursday, Instagram conducted a sweeping purge of bot and inactive accounts, leading to significant drops in follower numbers for celebrities, influencers, and brands globally. Users have already dubbed this event the "Great Purge of 2026."
A spokesperson for Meta confirmed the move as part of the company's routine procedures. "As part of our regular process to remove inactive accounts, some Instagram users may notice updates in their follower counts," they stated.
"Active followers remain unaffected, and any suspended account that is reinstated will be added back to the follower count upon verification," the company further explained.
Among those hardest hit were Kylie Jenner, who saw a loss of over 14 million followers, and Cristiano Ronaldo, who had 6,622,220 followers removed, according to reports from industry sources.
The K-pop band BTS and Bollywood stars Virat Kohli and Priyanka Chopra also experienced substantial reductions, losing millions of followers in just hours.
Even Instagram's official account wasn't spared; according to a user on X, the platform itself lost nearly nine million followers, sparking a wave of jokes across social media.
While Meta did not provide an exact number of accounts removed, the company estimates that 10% to 15% of its active accounts are fake or spam. Back in 2025, Instagram had already deleted over 500 million fake accounts, as detailed in its February 2026 Transparency Report.
This move by Instagram is not an isolated incident. X also conducted its own bot purge on April 9, suspending 208 bot accounts per minute, according to Nikita Bier, the platform's Product Director. Bier humorously announced the mass suspensions: "Christmas came early," he quipped. By October 2025, X had already purged 1.7 million spam bots in responses during a previous cleanup, as reported by socialmediatoday.com.
These operations underscore a growing trend among major platforms to clean up artificially inflated metrics, driven by pressure from advertisers and regulators demanding more transparent and accurate audience data.
The fake follower economy is a lucrative business, with services like Buzzoid or Famoid charging between $50 and $100 for 10,000 followers, 95% of which are bots that vanish within weeks, according to a 2025 analysis by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
Instagram's purge comes at a time when the authenticity of digital metrics has become a central demand of the global advertising ecosystem, pointing to the likelihood that platforms will continue these cleansing operations on a regular basis.
Understanding Instagram's 2026 Follower Purge
Why did Instagram remove millions of followers?
Instagram removed millions of followers as part of a routine purge to eliminate inactive and bot accounts, aiming to provide more accurate metrics for users and advertisers.
Who were the most affected by Instagram's purge?
Celebrities like Kylie Jenner and Cristiano Ronaldo were among the most affected, losing millions of followers. The K-pop band BTS and Bollywood stars Virat Kohli and Priyanka Chopra also faced significant follower reductions.
How does the fake follower economy operate?
The fake follower economy involves services charging fees to provide followers, most of which are bots. These followers usually disappear within weeks, offering temporary boosts to follower counts at the expense of authenticity.