Photo-sharing service Instagram has deleted millions of accounts for posting what it believes to be spam, with scores of legitimate users having been affected. The move has been branded the “Instagram Rapture”.
Instagram is owned by Facebook, who also have a history of routine account removal in order to maintain the quality of its service. Removal is implemented in order to limit spam and prevent users from abusing such services.
A number of high-profile figures have lost over a million followers, including rapper Akon. Justin Bieber lost over 3.5 million followers. User chiragchirag78 lost 99% of his followers. His own account was then deleted too. Instagram’s own account lost almost 19 million followers. Instagram had warned that the “Rapture” was coming in a blog post a few weeks ago. Orange is the New Black actor Matt McGorry said “There may be 545k Instagram followers left but my 11k spam followers that disappeared took a piece of my heart with them.”
The move seems to have been met with a mix of anger and humor.
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