Instagram deletes inactive accounts, Millions of followers disappear

Kathmandu-This week became stressful for many big businesses, celebrities, and content creators using Instagram after the platform removed millions of inactive and fake accounts. As a result, many popular accounts suddenly lost huge numbers of followers.Famous brands like Nike and Victoria’s Secret lost millions of followers during the cleanup. Surprisingly, Instagram’s own official account lost the highest number of followers. Internet users have started calling the event the “Great Purge of 2026.”According to Meta, the removal was part of a regular process to clean inactive accounts from the platform. The company said active and real users should not be affected. Meta also explained that if any real account was removed by mistake, it could be restored after verification.

The main reason behind the update is Instagram’s effort to support original content creators and reduce copied or reposted content. Earlier, the platform had already announced plans to reduce the reach of accounts that repost other people’s photos and videos.Data from Google Trends showed that searches for “Instagram bot purge” started rising on May 6 and became very popular by May 8.According to social media tracking platform “Instrack,” Instagram itself lost around 15.2 million followers, bringing its total down to 686 million.

Cristiano Ronaldo lost about 9.19 million followers, while Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, and Taylor Swift also saw major drops in follower numbers.However, not every account lost followers. Some accounts, including Duolingo, gained new followers during the cleanup.The update also affected well-known names like Mark Zuckerberg, MrBeast, Tesla, and Starbucks.Experts say the move shows that Instagram is trying to remove fake followers and give more importance to real users and original creators.