14 DAY TRIAL // The Instagram Rapture has started: after saying all year that it would delete spammy and bot accounts, or followers bought by the dozens, Instagram has finally done it. Celebrities, including Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande, and Beyonce, have been the most affected by the move.
But they’re in no position to complain because they still have followers in the millions. Regular people don’t, and those who cherished every new follower, be it real or not, are very upset about what happened.
They want their followers back, so would Instagram just oblige them already.
Celebrities’ accounts take a nosedive
All jokes aside, Instagram made this move for a reason, so no amount of pleading, swearing, or threatening is about to get it to change its mind. Still, if you have the time, it’s funny to scroll through some of the things people are saying about the phenomenon, which has already been dubbed “Instagram Rapture.”
Whether they’ve lost 1 or hundreds of thousands of followers, they employ some of the most creative use of swearing and “woe is me” types of discourse to make Instagram understand that they preferred things the way they were before.
Still, their “problems” are trifles compared to the kind of hit celebrities took with the “Rapture.” According to figures put together by developer Zach Allia, pop star Justin Bieber lost over 3.5 million followers in the blink of an eye. That’s more than he lost when he cut his hair for the first time, if you’re keeping count.
The Biebs is the biggest celebrity loser (of Instagram bot followers), but Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande, and Beyonce were also affected by this. Even Kim Kardashian lost 1.3 million followers, but she still has 22 million who are real – and really love her.
Rappers Akon and Ma$e were also hit hard, with the latter even deleting his account after he was accused he’d been buying followers just to make himself look more popular.
Other celebrities who lost many followers include Kim’s sister Khloe and half-sisters Kendall and Kylie, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj, and Katy Perry.
Undoubtedly the biggest loss came for chiragchirag78, which was left with just 8 followers after the “Rapture” removed another 3,660,460. That’s a total of 99.9998% followers removed.
The silver lining
The instant upside to this, speaking from users’ perspective, is that they can have a blast checking out reactions of other users online in respect to the “Rapture.” Sure, many are furious and even more will not hesitate to use at least a couple of F-bombs to make their feelings known, but there are also guys and gals (and some celebrities too) who choose to see in the situation a good occasion to crack a smile.
So jokes and fake-outraged posts are already starting to pop up, from those asking Instagram to “bring my one follower back!” to those lamenting the passing of the bot followers who, they believe, are now in robot heaven with their robot friends, leading their robot happy lives.
That’s one way to look at the situation.
