Major Stars Priyanka Chopra, Kylie Jenner, and Cristiano Ronaldo Lose Millions of Followers as Instagram Removes Fake Accounts and Bots

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When celebrities and influencers woke up on May 6, many of them experienced a shocking surprise. Their carefully cultivated Instagram follower counts, which they had spent years building, suddenly appeared diminished.

Some accounts lost hundreds of thousands of followers, while others saw millions disappear almost overnight. The phenomenon swept across the platform so rapidly that users quickly dubbed the event the “Great Purge of 2026,” sparking heated discussions across social media about the true size of celebrity audiences and the prevalence of inauthentic engagement on the platform.

The scale of the follower decline was unprecedented in recent memory. Celebrities and influencers found that Instagram’s parent company Meta had begun a large-scale crackdown on fake, inactive and bot accounts across the platform.

While the impact varied significantly from account to account, some of the world’s most-followed figures experienced staggering losses.

Among those hardest hit were Kylie Jenner, who saw a loss of over 14 million followers, and Cristiano Ronaldo, who had 6,622,220 followers removed. The cascading effect extended far beyond individual celebrities, affecting entertainment groups, athletes, and influencers across every corner of the globe.

Priyanka Chopra reportedly lost about 4 million followers, while Virat Kohli’s reported drop varies by source, with Pulse listing it at around 5 million and Times of India reporting nearly 2 million. K-pop acts including BTS and BLACKPINK saw their official group accounts shed millions of followers as well. BLACKPINK’s official group account reportedly lost around 10 million followers, while BTS’s official group account reportedly lost around 7 million followers.

A spokesperson for Meta confirmed the move as part of the company’s routine procedures, stating “As part of our regular process to remove inactive accounts, some Instagram users may notice updates in their follower counts. Active followers remain unaffected, and any suspended account that is reinstated will be added back to the follower count upon verification.”

The company positioned the cleanup as a necessary step to improve platform authenticity and reduce inflated engagement metrics that had accumulated over time. The cleanup is part of a wider Meta push that introduced AI tools aimed at impersonation, scam ads, and coordinated inauthentic behavior on its apps.

The purge raised important questions about how these massive follower counts had accumulated in the first place and what portion of celebrity engagement had actually been coming from real, human users. How do you think this cleanup affects the way we evaluate influence and success on social media platforms like Instagram?

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