Nearly everyone who uses Instagram was shocked a few days ago when their follower count stooped lower and lower.
A glitch in the app caused a lot of users to lose millions of followers.
Instagram is an app which is used by millions of users worldwide. It started when a couple of popular names such as James Charles, Shane Dawson among several others began noticing a change in their follower count.
While some claimed that Instagram was simply removing fake accounts or inactive accounts, some claimed that they were losing genuine and authentic followers.
Several Influencers requested their followers to check their follower count and definitely, a lot of them were seeing it differently.
This did affect those who had a low number of followers as well when a majority of people lost over a hundred followers.
Instagram claimed that they are still investigating the issue which caused some of the most prominent accounts to appear that they lost followers.
However, they said that this was merely a glitch.
Instagram tweeted that they were aware of the issue that was causing the change in the follower count in accounts and said that they were working on resolving this issue.
This may seem inconsequential to those who have only a few followers but for brands who work day and night to gain these followers, it was a nightmare.
Losing so many followers would obviously lead to lower engagement.
Celebrities such as Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, Cardi B and Selena Gomez saw their follower count decrease by millions.
James Charles even tweeted about this, asking Instagram for answers.
Popular websites which claim that Instagram took appropriate actions against inactive accounts are confused given that Instagram never claimed that it was deleting spam or inactive accounts.
Even though, Instagram announced that it would take steps to eliminate fake accounts from the platform to make it more user-friendly.
It’s uncertain whether this was part of their plan or not.
A report from Fast Company originally suggested that “Instagram took actions to remove millions of accounts the company believed to be inauthentic,” but it is unclear if that is the case, following Instagram’s tweet about the issue.
Many companies, including Instagram, do sporadic sweeps of their user bases to remove spam or inactive accounts.
The company announced in November that it was gearing up to reduce the number of inauthentic accounts on the platform.
Instagram is also working towards eliminating accounts which use third-party applications to get likes, followers and comments.
In fact, they are working on new techniques to identify this activity and remove accounts which indulge in it.
Instagram is still on the lookout for fraudulent activity on its platform.
The current Instagram algorithm is quite stern and prevents users which fake followers and fake likes to be featured on the feed.
With the help of new technology and artificial intelligence, Instagram is sure to keep the fraudulent accounts at bay.
You can definitely expect positive changes and removal of inactive accounts super soon.