Instagram follower counts fall after major bot and inactive account cleanup

Dubai: Instagram has removed millions of followers from accounts across the platform as part of an ongoing cleanup of bot and inactive profiles, leading to sudden drops in follower counts for users globally.

The change appears to be linked to Meta’s continued efforts to improve account authenticity by identifying and deleting spam accounts, fake profiles, and long-inactive users.

While Instagram regularly carries out such cleanups, this latest round has been more noticeable because of its scale, with some accounts seeing significant reductions almost overnight.

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A Meta spokesperson shares statement regarding Instagram’s removal of followers from some accounts:

“As part of our routine process to remove inactive accounts, some Instagram accounts may have noticed updates to their follower counts. Active followers remain unaffected, and any… pic.twitter.com/MGySH9LxAR

— Pop Base (@PopBase) May 7, 2026

The impact has been visible across different types of accounts, including public figures and influencers who rely heavily on follower metrics. In many cases, the drops are understood to reflect the removal of automated or low-quality accounts rather than real users actively unfollowing.

Instagram has not framed the move as a new policy shift, but as part of its ongoing enforcement of platform integrity standards. The aim is to ensure engagement metrics more accurately represent genuine activity, which also affects how content is ranked and distributed on the app.

Instagram has deleted millions of old/unused accounts. Selena Gomez currently has 408 MILLION followers on that platform.

— The same happened to other celebrities like Ariana Grande or Kylie Jenner. pic.twitter.com/uXTr6GkqqL

— Selena Gomez Worldwide | Fan Account (@WorldwideSelG) May 6, 2026

For creators and public figures, the immediate effect is mostly numerical, though some may see changes in engagement rates depending on how many inactive followers were removed. For most users, the update is largely a backend adjustment rather than a change in how the app is used day to day.

Some users have also been sharing small, personal impacts of the cleanup. One influencer said she lost around 300 followers shortly after reaching 11,000, noting that the drop happened suddenly without any change in her posting or activity.

Some users have pushed back on the cleanup, saying they understand removing bots but are uncomfortable with inactive accounts being included in the purge.

One user on X said: “I’m all for removing the bots but removing inactive users is dangerous. I don’t want people that are no longer with us to lose their account and their memories. Instagram should have a way to report these people so their memory is protected.”

Many Instagram accounts belong to people who have simply stopped using the platform, while others belong to users who have passed away, and in those cases the profiles often remain online as a form of memory space for friends and family.

Instagram already has a memorialisation option where accounts can be marked as “remembering” if a death is reported and verified, which freezes the profile and preserves existing content. However, not all inactive accounts are converted into memorialised profiles, which is where some of the current concern is coming from.

Overall, the cleanup seems to be affecting accounts across all tiers, just in different proportions depending on how many inactive followers were attached to each profile.