Instagram Rapture! Celebrities Loses Millions of Followers

Justin Bieber has received the social media equivalent of a lump of coal in his stocking.

The Biebs, his ex-girlfriend Selena Gomez, Kim Kardashian, Rihanna, and other big names lost thousands — and in some cases more than a million — Instagram followers in one fell swoop Thursday, as the company deleted inactive, fake, and spam accounts. Instagram announced last week that it would be making the move after reaching 300 million total users.

Bieber, who was previously the most followed person on the photo sharing site, lost more than 3.5 million followers in the so-called “Instagram Rapture,” to bring him to a total of 20 million. His losses meant that Kardashian, who had been right on his heels before the spammers were removed, surpassed him. However, the reality star lost 1.3 million followers herself, giving her a total of 22.2 million followers, according to a graphic created by web developer Zach Allia and picked up by Business Insider.

In addition to Bieber and Kardashian, here are some of the other celebrities who lost a large number of followers:

Akon: 2.5 million

Ariana Grande: 1.5 million

Rihanna: 1.2 million

Selena Gomez: 1.1 million

Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs 1 million

Kendall Jenner: 907,000

Bruno Mars: 881,000

Beyoncé: 832,000

Kylie Jenner: 827,000

Harry Styles: 820,000

Celebs who have a high number of followers tend to get more than just an ego boost from it. They can earn big bucks from sending out sponsored posts. People also often weigh social media presence when considering a person’s level of fame.

Twitter users quickly began lamenting the losses of their own followers with the hashtag #instagramPurge.
#instagramPurge Tweets
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Credits: yahoonews