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Instagram users spiral into existential crisis after losing followers

A glitch on Instagram’s end caused some users to lose up to 3 million followers.

Instagram users spiral into existential crisis after losing followers

[Photo: Luke van Zyl/Unsplash]

BY Michael Grothaus1 minute read

Instagram users woke up today to discover that many had lost followers overnight. In most cases, the number of followers an Instagram user lost was just a handful to several hundred, according to reports on Twitter. However, major Instagram personalities like Selena Gomez lost almost 2 million and Ariana Grande lost almost 3 million. Needless to say, people were NOT HAPPY and wanted an explanation to why their social media street cred just went down.

https://twitter.com/moniquexmusic/status/1095554357259431937

https://twitter.com/Tanika_Terry_/status/1095617302987337728

So what happened? Instagram has now tweeted that the follower loss was not the result of a fake user account culling, but instead due to a glitch they are still looking in to. We’ve individually confirmed this with Instagram representatives as well. The good news is that those who lost followers should see them return sometime in the future. How soon that happens depends on how quickly Instagram can track down and fix the glitch.

[Correction: This post has been updated to correct the original report that said the loss of followers was a result of a culling of fake profiles.]

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael Grothaus is a novelist and author. He has written for Fast Company since 2013, where he's interviewed some of the tech industry’s most prominent leaders and writes about everything from Apple and artificial intelligence to the effects of technology on individuals and society. Michael’s current tech-focused areas of interest include AI, quantum computing, and the ways tech can improve the quality of life for the elderly and individuals with disabilities More


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