Instagram Purging More Fake Accounts?
Managing, or being involved with, several high-follower Instagram accounts allows me to see some minute changes that may blow past the ordinary Instagram user. Earlier this week I noticed about a .5 percent drop in follower counts for several profiles. While this doesn’t appear to be a significant number, it does represent the first time I’ve seen across the board declines on the same day since that infamous purge back in December 2014. The minor purge this week has not been announced or reported, but several of my friends in the social media community have noted similar small decreases.
Such a purge is not a bad thing. I’ve noticed the number of fake accounts on Instagram skyrocket over the past few months. Some of my larger “private” accounts (those requiring approval in order to follow) get requests from hundreds seemingly fake profiles every day. These profiles are usually pretty easy to spot – often with no profile picture, no bio, no posts, and the follow-to-follower ratio heavily out of balance. They add nothing to your profile or the community.
For those of you who remember, back in December 2014 Instagram wiped out a large number of fake profiles. It was heavily reported in mainstream media, and referred to as a “spam purge” or “Instagram Rapture” by some outlets.
Some of the biggest losers were celebrities such as Justin Bieber and rapper Akon, who reportedly lost over half of his followers in a single day.
The mini-purge this week appears to be small at this moment, but I’ll update here if anything changes.
Have you seen any declines in followers on Instagram this week?