On May 6, Meta removed millions of fake accounts from Instagram, leading to a sudden drop in followers for many celebrities. Kylie Jenner lost between 5 million and 15 million followers, while Cristiano Ronaldo saw a decrease of 6.6 million to 8 million. This massive cleanup happened in just six hours, and people quickly dubbed it “the Great Purge of 2026.”
Meta explained that this was part of their routine process to eliminate inactive accounts. They assured users that active followers would remain unaffected, and any restored accounts would be counted again after verification.
Selena Gomez lost around 5.4 million to 6 million followers, and Ariana Grande dropped between 5.5 million and 6 million. Taylor Swift and Lionel Messi each lost about 5 million. K-pop groups were hit hard too, with BLACKPINK losing 10 million followers and BTS dropping 7 million. The Kardashian family combined lost over 13 million, with Kim Kardashian down by 5.1 million and Khloé Kardashian losing 3.7 million.
Athletes also faced significant losses. Virat Kohli lost between 2 million and 5 million followers, while Neymar’s count dropped by 4 million. Even smaller creators felt the impact, with reports showing a loss of 2 to 5 percent of their followers.
Meta used AI to detect fake accounts and spam, but some users claimed that real accounts might have been mistakenly removed. Priyanka Chopra lost 4 million followers, and both Beyoncé and Dwayne Johnson dropped around 4.4 million to 5 million. Justin Bieber’s count fell by 5 million. This event marks one of the largest bot removals in Instagram’s history, but Meta has not confirmed if more purges are on the way.
