Stop the presses! Kim Kardashian just lost 1.3 million followers in what is being described as the Great Instagram Purge of 2014 or even the Instagram Rapture.
In an attempt to delete inactive accounts, Instagram is removing millions of accounts believed to be posting spam. Like its parent company Facebook, Instagram tends to delete inactive and spam accounts. But this time it appears to be axing millions, and it's causing actors and singers and entertainers to lose a huge percentage of their followers.
Kim Kardashian, who recently tried to break the Internet with her Paper Magazine cover, lost 5.5 per cent of her 23 million followers. The reality star now has more followers than Justin Bieber, who shed 3.5 million followers, thus making Kardashian the most followed person on Instagram. Kardashian and Bieber weren't the only people to lose tonnes of followers however.
Thanks to data collected by 64px.com, we were able to round up the accounts most affected. The people listed below lost more followers than anyone else, and at least one of them saw a 56 per cent drop. Most of them are celebrities too, which raises questions about whether stars try to boost their social media presence by purchasing fake followers.
Highest number of followers lost
- Justinbieber - 3.5 million of 23.8 million followers
- Camposwell - 3.2 million of 5.5 million followers
- Akon - 2.4 million of 4.3 million followers
- Kinggoldchains - 2.1 million of 5.6 million followers
- Arianagrande - 1.5 million of 21.7 million followers
- Kimkardashian - 1.3 million of 23.5 million followers
- Badgalriri - 1.1 million of 14.4 million followers
- Selenagomez - 1.1 million of 19.5 million followers
- Iamdiddy - 1 million of 4.6 million followers
- Kendalljenner - 906,000 of 17 million followers
Highest percentage of followers lost
- Camposwell - 59.6 per cent of 5.5 million followers
- Akon - 56.2 per cent of 4.3 million followers
- Kinggoldchains - 37.3 per cent of 5.6 million followers
- brunomars - 23.8 per cent of 3.6 million followers
- iamdiddy - 23.4 per cent of 4.6 million followers
- justinbieber - 14.8 per cent of 23.8 million followers
- bellathorne - 13 per cent of 3.8 million followers
- louist - 9.6 per cent of 4 million followers
- austinmahone - 8.6 per cent of 5.6 million followers
- niallhoran - 8.5 per cent of 8.7 million followers
Note: An account called "chiragchirag78" is technically the biggest loser, having lost over 99.9 per cent of his 3.6 million followers, but that account no longer exists. The official Instagram account also lost 29.4 per cent of its 64.1 million followers, though we didn't include it above.