Meta launched in May 2026 one of the largest actions to remove fake, inactive and bot accounts in Instagram history. In just a few hours, tens of millions of "spirits" disappeared – and the world's biggest stars lost huge numbers of followers.
Who lost the most followers?
- Kylie Jenner → minus 14-15 million (the biggest loss in the world)
- BLACKPINK (official account) → minus 10 million
- Cristiano Ronaldo → minus 8 million
- Selena Gomez → minus about 6 million.
- Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber and others also lost several million each
The action has already been named "Great Purge of 2026". Instagram removes accounts that haven't been active for a long time, bots and profiles created exclusively for artificial range lift.
The Meta has not released an official message, but people close to the platform confirm that it is part of a wider strategy to fight false engagement and improve the quality of advertising.
Many influencers and celebrities initially panicked to see the numbers drop rapidly. Over time, however, there were voices that "the real audience is finally seen". After cleaning, the ratios of energy (ranges relative to the number of followers) in many people even increased.
The cleaning continues – experts estimate that in the coming weeks, up to a few dozen million accounts worldwide could disappear.
How many have you lost?
