Instagram Looking Into Issue That Caused Users’ Follower Counts To Drop

Instagram is looking for a solution after a number of users reported seeing noticeable drops in their follower counts.

Over the last day, Instagrammers have flocked to Twitter to report their follower counts had sunk. Folks with smaller accounts reported the number dropping less than 50 people, while others said they’d lost more than 1,000. And as Fast Company points out, much-followed celebrities Selena Gomez (currently 143.2 million) and Ariana Grande (145.2 million) lost 2 million and 3 million, respectively.

YouTube makeup artist James Charles saw a sizeable drop on his account.

He was far from the only one:

Some people assumed the drop was from Instagram doing another purge of fake followers and bot accounts. But according to the platform, the issue is actually a glitch that causes follower numbers displayed on users’ profiles to fluctuate.

Once Instagram figures out what’s gone wrong, affected accounts will likely see their follower numbers return to normal.