Taylor Swift, Cristiano Ronaldo lose millions of Instagram followers overnight

Instagram’s top celebrities, including Taylor Swift, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Kylie Jenner, woke up to a shocking drop in followers on May 7th. Instagram wiped out millions of fake, bot, and “inactive” accounts in what netizens described as the "Great Purge of 2026".

Key takeaways:

Instagram deleted millions of fake and inactive accounts in the "Great Purge of 2026."
Kylie Jenner lost 15 million followers, Cristiano Ronaldo 7 million, Taylor Swift 5 million.
Even private accounts with verified followers saw unexpected drops.

Key Takeaways by nexos.ai, reviewed by Cybernews staff.

The mass follower plunge comes after Instagram’s parent company, Meta, decided to clean up spam, fake, inactive accounts, and "non-organic" followers.

Users reported losing thousands or even millions of followers, with small to mid-sized creators seeing average drops of about 2% to 5% of their total follower counts.

Major Instagram accounts suffered the biggest hit. Kylie Jenner reportedly lost more than 15 million followers, while Cristiano Ronaldo lost nearly 7 million.

BLACKPINK’s official account lost around 10 million followers, while Selena Gomez’s account was down by 6 million. Taylor Swift’s account reportedly lost 5 million followers.

Other affected celebrities included Ariana Grande, Beyoncé, Justin Bieber, Virat Kohli, and Priyanka Chopra.

Regular users also reported sharp declines in follower counts, with some taking it to X to complain about the lost followers.

"My page is private and I rarely ever accepted people I hadn’t at least interacted with once in real life and tell me why I lost 21 followers,” one user said.

Meta has confirmed that they’ve removed inactive accounts from the platform, which could have affected some users: “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 has long been criticized over fake engagement on its platforms. A company executive previously warned that as much as 40% of all activity on Instagram was “fake”, according to internal Meta emails revealed during the FTC’s antitrust trial in 2025.

FAQ

Did Taylor Swift live in London?

Yes, Taylor Swift did live in London for extended periods during her relationship with Joe Alwyn (2016-2023). She initially stayed in his Crouch End apartment, then they moved to a townhouse in Primrose Hill, and reports suggest they were purchasing a £8.3 million mansion in Belsize Park before their breakup. Her song "So Long, London" references a "house by the Heath" (Hampstead Heath), seemingly confirming property ownership there.

Did Cristiano Ronaldo play with David Beckham?

No, they didn't actually play together. Beckham left Manchester United for Real Madrid in summer 2003, and Ronaldo signed for United that same summer. Ronaldo made his United debut in August 2003 after Beckham had already gone. So they just missed each other, Beckham's last season at United was 2002-03, and Ronaldo's first was 2003-04.

Does Cristiano Ronaldo speak English?

Yes, Cristiano Ronaldo speaks English fluently. He learned it during his six years at Manchester United (2003-2009) and again when he returned for a second stint (2021-2022). He's done countless interviews in English and is comfortable speaking it, though he sometimes prefers Portuguese or Spanish in press conferences. He also speaks Spanish fluently from his time at Real Madrid, and Italian from his years at Juventus. So, he's multilingual: Portuguese (native), English, Spanish, and Italian.

Does Kylie Jenner have kids?

Yes, Kylie Jenner has two children with rapper Travis Scott. She has a daughter, Stormi Webster, born in February 2018, and a son, Aire Webster, born in February 2022. She's been fairly private about her kids but does share glimpses of them on social media occasionally.

FAQ by nexos.ai, reviewed by Cybernews staff.