Instagram users across the world woke up to a major social media shake-up after several top celebrities reportedly lost millions of followers overnight amid what netizens are calling the ‘Great Purge of 2026’.
Indian cricket superstar Virat Kohli’s following dropped from a whopping 276 million, to 274 million, signalling a massive dip. According to ‘Not Just Analytics’, an AI-driven social media tracking website, Kohli’s follower dip was visible in the first week of May itself, with nearly 2 million followers dropping from his account during the period.
The sudden drop in follower counts is believed to be linked to parent company Meta’s crackdown on fake, inactive and bot-driven accounts. While Meta has not officially commented on the clean-up, social media tracking pages and analytics platforms have recorded steep declines across celebrity profiles.
According to reports circulating online and data shared by Celebrity Radar on X, Kylie Jenner reportedly lost over 14 million followers, while football icon Cristiano Ronaldo saw a dip of around 8 million followers. Singer-actress Selena Gomez reportedly lost nearly 6 million followers.
Global celebrities including Kylie Jenner and Priyanka Chopra also witnessed fluctuations in follower counts as Instagram intensified its purge of suspicious accounts.
The clean-up has reignited conversations around inflated follower numbers, bot engagement and the growing pressure on influencers and celebrities to maintain massive social media reach.
