In what is being referred to as the Instagram "purge," many Instagram users lost tons of followers when the picture-sharing platform cleared out inactive and spam accounts on Thursday.
Poor Justin Bieber was dethroned as the most-followed Instagram user, losing 3.5 million followers in less than 24 hours, according to a list compiled by 64px. On Thursday, he had 23.8 million followers; after the purge, Biebs has a mere 20.3 million Instagram acolytes. Beliebers, we assume, rallied after learning of his fall from grace.
Everybody please go follow Justin Bieber on Instagram. He lost 3 million fake followers yesterday and now only has 20,000,000 #tears— Kasum (@ItsKasum) December 19, 2014
BEFORE YOU GET PISSED ABOUT LOSING INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS REMEBER JUSTIN BIEBER LOST 30 MILLION TODAY— Ryan Beckford (@Rybeckford) December 18, 2014
The new ruler is Internet-breaker Kim Kardashian, of course. Kardashian lost only 1.3 million Instagram followers in the Purge, making her the new queen of Instagram followers with a 22.2 million follower count.
Beyoncé, who lost fewer than 1 million followers, is now in the No. 2 spot. Akon lost more than 50% of his followers, dropping from 4.3 million to 1.9 million. After losing 1.5 million followers and dropping to 100,000, rapper Ma$e deleted his account.
Instagram didn't immediately respond to Mashable's request for comment, but a spokesman explained the situation to The Guardian:
After receiving feedback from members in the Instagram community, we recently fixed an issue that incorrectly included inactive accounts in follower/following lists. We believe this will provide a more authentic experience and genuinely reflect people who are actually engaging with each other’s content.
We will always remember you, Instagram spam bots.
BONUS: Let's play Kim Kardashian: Hollywood