Why Ariana Grande and Kylie Jenner Suddenly Lost Millions of Instagram Followers - ELLE.com

Getty ImagesJeff Kravitz/AMA2016

Ariana Grande and Kylie Jenner lost millions of Instagram followers suddenly last night, while other influencers lost thousands.
Other celebrities like Selena Gomez and Kim Kardashian were less affected by the change, with their follower count not visibly changing very drastically if at all.
Instagram tweeted this morning that the loss was due to a glitch. There is speculation on social media though that the platform may be trying to delete fake spam accounts made only to boost followers and likes.

Yesterday afternoon, Ariana Grande was nearly tied with Selena Gomez for being the most followed woman on Instagram. Both women had over 145 million followers, with Gomez holding a slight edge over Grande. But then suddenly, Grande dropped down to 142 million followers.

Grande at 142 million followers this morning.

Instagram

She wasn't the only celebrity to have a sudden dip in follower count: Kylie Jenner, who was one million shy of tying with her sister Kim Kardashian's 127 million followers, also lost over 2 million followers. She was at 126 million and is now at 124 million. Kensington Palace additionally lost over 150,000 followers last night, Hello! reported. Some influencers were also massively hit by the purge.

Instagram

Some noticed the purge on Twitter and were confused: Was Instagram mass-deleting spam accounts? Did these celebrities really have that many million bot accounts following them? Why were some celebrities less affected? Gomez and Kardashian, for example, both remained at 145 million and 127 million followers respectively.

Instagram

The reality, Instagram announced on its Twitter this morning, is that this was a glitch. "We’re aware of an issue that is causing a change in account follower numbers for some people right now," the platform wrote. "We’re working to resolve this as quickly as possible." But it's unclear at this point whether the influencers' exact old numbers will be restored when the bug is fixed or whether they will have slightly fewer followers because some spam accounts were deleted. ELLE.com has reached out to Instagram for comment.

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