Social media users across platforms claimed that follower counts of several high-profile personalities suddenly dropped by hundreds of thousands to millions within a short period.
Other prominent names include Kylie Jenner, Selena Gomez, Lionel Messi, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Dwayne Johnson, Katy Perry and others. Several influencers and content creators from different countries also reported sharp declines in their follower numbers.
This came after Instagram decided to remove inactive, fake, spam and bot accounts as part of a cleanup drive, with users calling it the “Great Purge of 2026”.
While Meta has not officially confirmed the cleanup drive, many users noticed that celebrities, influencers and popular pages suddenly lost millions of followers within hours. Approximately 50 million accounts have been deleted or deactivated from the platform during this process, reports state.
Reports also claimed Instagram targeted accounts linked to third-party follower boosting services, which are often used to artificially increase follower counts. As a result, many high-profile accounts saw a sharp decline in numbers.
Some of the biggest drops were seen on celebrity accounts. According to Celebrity Radar, Kylie Jenner reportedly lost more than 15 million followers, while the official BLACKPINK Instagram account lost over 10 million.
Football star Cristiano Ronaldo reportedly lost around 6.6 million followers, and Lionel Messi lost over 4.8 million followers, while singer and actor Selena Gomez lost nearly 6 million. Virat Kohli, one of the most-followed celebrities in India lost over 2 million followers and Priyanka Chopra lost 1.1 million followers.
Several female pop stars such as Ariana Grande reportedly lost 5.5 million followers, Beyonce lost 4.4 million, Taylor Swift lost 4.1 million, Miley Cyrus lost 3.2 million, Katy Perry lost 2.9 million, Rihanna lost 2 million and Shakira lost 1 million followers.
Reports also claimed that smaller creators and influencers lost around 2% to 5% of their followers during the purge.
Also Read: India tests maiden TARA weapon that turns unguided bombs into precision strikes
Instagram has done similar clean-up drives before to remove fake and inactive accounts so that follower counts and engagement look more genuine.
However, according to online reports, the latest alleged cleanup appears to have had a much bigger impact than previous ones, especially on celebrity and influencer accounts.
Also Read: Who will be Kerala’s CM? Battle between Congress’ Venugopal vs Satheesan heats up
(Edited by : Navneet Singh)
First Published: May 8, 2026 3:16 PM IST
