Spring Cleaning: Why You Lost Instagram Followers

Update (Dec. 19, 2014): Instagram has purged its rolls of millions of fake and spammy accounts. Here’s our story: Instagram’s Fake Account Purge Mostly Spares Top Brands

You might have noticed a few fewer followers on your Instagram account. It’s not a glitch. Instagram has just stopped including inactive accounts in the follower/following totals, as stated in an update on Instagram apps (see screen grab below).

The details, from an Instagram spokesperson: “After receiving feedback from members in the Instagram community, we recently fixed an issue that incorrectly included inactive accounts in follower/following lists. We believe this will provide a more authentic experience and genuinely reflect people who are actually engaging with each other’s content.”

Another reminder about the follower/following scoreboard from Instagram: “Keep in mind that if your follower/following count is over 200, we’ll only show the most recent 200 followers or people followed in the list. If you have over 5,000 followers or are following more than 1,000 people and would like to view a complete list, we suggest visiting a third-party site that uses our API, like web.stagram.com or gramfeed.com.”

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About The Author

Martin Beck

Martin Beck was Third Door Media's Social Media Reporter from March 2014 through December 2015.