Celebs who lost the most Instagram followers, as Selena and Ariana drop millions overnight

Some of the world’s biggest celebrities have just lost millions of followers on Instagram overnight in the platform’s biggest bot crackdown ever. Meta has deactivated millions of fake accounts in a huge clear-up of the social media site, meaning some celebs have lost up to 7 million followers in minutes.

“As part of our routine process to remove inactive accounts, some Instagram accounts may have noticed updates to their follower counts. Active followers remain unaffected, and any restored suspended account will be included in the count again after verification,” Meta said in a statement.

So, if you’ve suddenly noticed your follower count drop, that’s why. The bot purge has affected everyone, but here are all the celebrities who have been seriously affected, and who has lost the most followers.

Kylie Jenner – 5 million

Kylie Jenner perdeu 15 MILHÕES de seguidores no Instagram após limpeza de contas inativas e bots feito pela META. pic.twitter.com/pxHykzYv4o

— POPTime (@poptime) May 6, 2026

There are viral reports that Kylie Jenner lost 15 million followers, but she actually only lost 5 million, dropping from 390 million to 385 million. That’s still a lot!

Justin Bieber – 5 million

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Justin Bieber (@lilbieber)

Justin Bieber lost the same amount of followers too, going from 294 million to 289 million overnight, a drop of a whopping 5 million followers.

Taylor Swift – 5 million

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift)

The pop girlies were all hit hard, starting with Taylor Swift who lost 5 million, dropping from a whopping 279 million to 275 million followers overnight.

Most Read

Ranked: All 24 Russell Group universities by how terrifying their financial deficits are

The Boys’ Karl Urban likes brutal post dragging season five as viewers say it ‘doesn’t make sense’

Worst Ex Ever: Varya Malina shares shocking update on 90 Day Fiancé partner Geoffrey Paschel

Ariana Grande – 6 million

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by r.e.m.beauty (@r.e.m.beauty)

Ariana Grande lost a massive lost 6 million followers over the last day too, going down from a huge 371 million to 365 million. How crazy!

Selena Gomez – 6 million

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Selena Gomez (@selenagomez)

Almost at the top of the list is Selena Gomez, who dropped down from 414 million to  408 million followers, giving her the same reduction of 6 million.

Cristiano Ronaldo – 7 million

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Cristiano Ronaldo (@cristiano)

But it’s Footballer Ronaldo who got hit the hardest, going from a crazy 673 million followers to 666 million followers in just a few hours, meaning he lost 7 million.

For more like this, like The Tab on Facebook. 

Featured image credit: Instagram