Instagram Cleanup: Reasons Behind Kylie Jenner and Blackpink Losing More Than 10 Million Followers

Why Kylie Jenner, Blackpink Lost Millions Of Followers (Images credit: Instagram

It’s the significant Instagram cleanup. Actors, musicians, athletes, and various Instagram personalities have seen their follower counts drop dramatically after Meta declared it would eliminate all bots and inactive accounts from its platforms. Influencer Kylie Jenner, who is also in a relationship with actor Timothée Chalamet, reportedly lost 14 million followers within a few hours. Additionally, K-pop girl group Blackpink is said to have lost approximately 10 million followers. Here’s why these high-profile celebrities have experienced such substantial losses.

Hollywood and international female stars experience follower declines

Blackpink

While not only celebrities have encountered a reduction in followers, their numbers have been the most significantly impacted. According to Yahoo, the celebrities most affected during Meta’s major cleanup on Instagram include Kylie Jenner, who lost over 15 million followers, the official Blackpink account with a loss of over 10 million, footballer Cristiano Ronaldo with 8 million, and Selena Gomez with 6 million. A notable trend observed on social media was the significant decrease in followers primarily on female accounts. Pop stars and singers also experienced declines. Ariana Grande lost 5.5 million, Beyoncé lost 4.4 million, Taylor Swift 4.1 million, and Rihanna around 2 million.

What caused the significant follower losses for celebrities?

Kylie Jenner

The social media platform implemented a stringent new policy aimed at removing spam, inactive accounts, and “non-organic” followers. This means any account that purchased followers from third-party services or was followed by bots was impacted. The abrupt decline was observed overnight as Meta enforced its new terms and conditions.

The report also indicates that millions of fake accounts were deactivated within six hours. Smaller influencers have seen a loss of about two to five percent of their total follower base. The platform overall has experienced a decline as user sentiment remains low. However, engagement on Threads, Meta’s alternative social media platform to replace X, has increased as users have turned to it as a substitute for the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Most followed on Instagram

As reported in February 2026, Ronaldo is the most followed celebrity, boasting 671 million followers; he is followed by Argentine football legend Lionel Messi, who has around 511 million followers. The Kardashian family, including sisters Kylie Jenner, Kim Kardashian, and Khloé Kardashian, occupies the fifth, eighth, and tenth positions on Instagram’s list of the top 10 most-followed accounts. The most followed female celebrity is Selena Gomez, with 415 million followers, ranking fourth.

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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.zoomtventertainment.com ’