Instagram glitch caused major drop in follower count

Instagram users recently noticed a drastic drop in their follower count. This was understood to be Instagram’s move of removing unauthentic accounts. It appears the sudden drop in follower count was actually due to an Instagram glitch.

Last November, Instagram announced it would start removing inauthentic likes, follows and comments from accounts that use third-party apps to generate popularity on the platform.

“We’ve built machine learning tools to help identify accounts that use these services and remove the inauthentic activity. Accounts we identify using these services will receive an in-app message alerting them that we have removed the inauthentic likes, follows and comments given by their account to others,” Instagram said in its blog post.