Instagram purges millions of fake accounts, exposes inflated celebrity counts
Entertainment
Instagram just wiped out millions of fake accounts and bots, causing big drops in follower counts for stars like Priyanka Chopra and Virat Kohli.
The clean-up has made it clear that a lot of celebrity numbers were boosted by fake followers, raising fresh questions about how real social media fame actually is.
Kohli and Ronaldo lose millions
Virat Kohli lost over 2 million followers in just two days, while Cristiano Ronaldo saw more than 6.6 million disappear from his count.
The problem isn't new: back in 2019, studies showed that even Ellen DeGeneres had over half her followers as fakes.
With Instagram stepping up its bot-busting game, the conversation around what's real (and what's not) on social media is heating up again.