Instagram Cleans House and Disgruntles Many Users
Recently Instagram decided to do a major cleanup, removing many users that were deemed “inactive” or gained by false means. Just before 2014 closed up, Instagram decided to delete accounts that were considered spammy or inactive. They pulled millions of spam or “bot” accounts from the ranks, causing many users to lose oodles of fans that were following them.
This cleanup revealed just how many fake or bot accounts many had following them. Celebrities were hard hit, many losing thousands or even millions of followers in one fell swoop. It’s been no secret that many celebrities bought followers on social media accounts, IG included and some would see their numbers drop by the millions overnight.
Akon was one of the hardest hit, losing 2.5 million, more than half of his total number in this cleanup process. Justin Bieber also lost 3.5 million and Ariana Grande lost 1.5 million.
BBC explains that Instgram warned this cleanup would be coming:
Instagram had warned its users that the deletion was coming in a blog post earlier this month.
“We’ve been deactivating spammy accounts from Instagram on an ongoing basis to improve your experience,” wrote chief executive and founder Kevin Systrom.
Still, many users were shocked and angered over the decision. Just like its parent company, Facebook, IG also goes through and removes what appear to be fake or spam accounts. This is intended to get rid of fake numbers by those who bought followers and likes and can also help serve to clean up old and inactive accounts.
Despite this being a routine procedure and something that IG even gave notice about, many users of the app were very upset to wake up and see their numbers have dwindled. They warned that the accounts would be deleted forever, meaning you would see a drop in your follower counts. So why were so many people upset over it?
It’s possible that at least some of them believed their followers were legit and therefore, would not be removed/deleted by IG. It’s hard to say for certain what some people were thinking. We can understand why they’re so upset. Working very hard to grow a following only to have the numbers culled in one night can be frustrating.
If you need to get more Instagram followers, there are options available for you. You can buy them like many people do but keep in mind you might lose them at a future date if IG does a cleanup again. Some people just like to keep a steady stream of incoming so that even if they lose some, the numbers balance out. It’s really up to you and how you want to manage your account. If you are against buying them to inflate your numbers, you will want to do it organically with hashtags, commenting and following others, and also trying to get your account or pictures featured. This will bring more attention to your account, ending in more followers naturally. But it will take time and effort to do it organically and you won’t see huge results overnight. Don’t get frustrated if you don’t think it’s happening quickly enough. Just trust the process and give it time.
When it comes to buying followers, it’s important to know that just because someone lost followers doesn’t mean they purchased them. The Telegraph points out, ”There is, however, no implication that any of the Instagram accounts mentioned have paid for followers.”
This is because it is incredibly difficult for the algorithm to know the difference. So an old account, an account someone has not used in a long time, or an infected account could all be the victim of a cleanup.
Did you lose any IG followers in this big cleanup?
