Lost Instagram followers overnight? The 'purge' affecting millions of accounts

If you’ve been on Instagram this morning, you might have noticed you’ve lost some followers - and you’re not alone.

Overnight, the platform appears to have done a massive clean-up of spam and bot accounts, with people across the app noticing their follower counts suddenly drop.

According to reports, Instagram regularly removes inactive or fake accounts to tidy up the platform, but this latest purge has hit hard, with some users losing hundreds - and celebs reportedly losing millions.

So before you start side-eyeing your mates or wondering what you posted wrong, chances are it’s just clearing out the dodgy accounts from your page.

While Instagram hasn’t officially commented on the clean-out, the internet has absolutely noticed.

People quickly jumped onto X to react, especially those who keep a close eye on their follower count.

“Instagram chose today to remind everyone their follower count was a lie,” one person wrote.

Another user tagged the platform asking: “Instagram, how come I lost 200 followers in a blink of an eye? 👀”

A third added: “Oh okay, so I lost followers on Instagram and now I’m sad lol.”

Not everyone’s upset about it, though.

“The first useful update in awhile for them,” another person said.

Others have been keeping tabs on which celebrities were hit the hardest, with huge drops noticed for some of Instagram’s most followed celebs including Cristiano Ronaldo, Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber.

So if you haven’t checked your account yet, now might be the time to see if the Instagram’s purge got you too.