Instagram users are angry they’re losing followers as the photo- and video-sharing site attempts to weed out inauthentic accounts.
Last week, Instagram announced it would be cleaning house by removing fake and spam accounts -- basically, any profile that does not adhere to the company’s community guidelines.
Some of those guidelines include only sharing your own photos and videos and limiting self-promotion and “commercial solicitation” in favour of “meaningful and genuine interactions.”
The apparent mass removal of accounts, however, has drawn the ire of apparent legitimate Instagram users who say they're losing followers by the truckload -- even though the followers are fake.
Users have taken to Instagram’s official profile to unleash a torrent of negative comments on their posts.
Instagram has addressed the matter on its help centre page, saying users may experience a “sudden decrease” in the number of followers as it fixes an issue that “incorrectly includes inactive or fake accounts in follower/following lists.”
“This shouldn’t affect engagement from authentic accounts that like and comment on your posts,” it added.
In a message posted to the Instagram blog last week, CEO Kevin Systrom said that as the popular website surpasses 300 million users it would be implementing verified badges for celebrities, athletes and brands.
Systrom also said its doing everything to keep Instagram free of “fake and spammy accounts that plague much of the web.”
But Instagrammers unfamiliar -- or confused -- with the changes are not pleased:
Love waking up and seeing that @instagram deleted 40 thousand of my followers with no explanation. Awesome.
— Bart Baker (@BartBaker) December 18, 2014
What's happened on @instagram ?? Just lost thousands of followers in seconds ??
— sam faiers (@SamanthaFaiers) December 18, 2014
Dang you can't even tell people to follow you back on or even write follow me on IG .
— 結核病 (@taaylorMADE) December 18, 2014
@instagram Well, this is awkward. pic.twitter.com/CUYGQmihGe
— Taco Bell (@tacobell) December 18, 2014