Some celebrities noticed a drop in their followings on Instagram Thursday, after the popular social media photo sharing platform announced it was removing spam accounts.
Instagram reportedly removed millions of phony spam accounts, telling users, “Your number of followers has changed. We just completed a fix to remove spammy accounts.”
On Thursday, roughly 1.3 million of Kim Kardashian’s followers vanished and Rihanna’s decreased by about 1.2 million.
Katy Perry’s went down 300,000, while Even Oprah lost 100,000 followers.
The removal of the accounts could actually end up hitting some stars in their pocketbooks, reports The NY Post, via Page Six.
It is believed that some popular social media users pad their followers by adding fake accounts.
A social media team handles many popular accounts, explains Michael Heller, CEO of Talent Resources. “It’s very inexpensive, so that’s why many social media teams buy followers.”
“It’s bad for a celeb for many reasons,” Heller said. “It’s embarrassing,” plus “they also could lose lots of money.”
Some popular brands reportedly negotiate with celebrities to push products on social media, dependent on their following.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.