Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Rihanna Lose Millions of Instagram Followers After App Deletes Fake Accounts

If you followed Justin Bieber on Instagram earlier this week, there was a 15 percent chance that you were actually a spambot. Yesterday (Dec. 18), the popular social media app went through a massive purging of fake accounts, causing celebrities like Bieber, Rihanna, Selena Gomez and Ariana Grande to lose millions of followers.

The impact of the fake account deletion was huge - Bieber is no longer the most-followed person on Instagram, according to CNN. That honor now goes to Kim Kardashian.

The purge caused Bieber to lose 3.5 million followers, an astounding 15 percent of his "fans." He now sits at 20.3 million followers on the site, falling short of Mrs. Kanye West's 22.2 million.

Bieber wasn't the only one to lose massive amounts of followers on Instagram. Ariana Grande lost 1.5 million followers, or 5.5 percent, and Rihanna and Selena Gomez both lost a cool 1.1 million.

The one musician who fared fairly well in the Instagram shedding? Taylor Swift. The vast majority of the "Blank Space" singer's followers were genuine; she only lost 750,000 fans, bringing her total down to 15.8 million.

Instagram as a whole lost massive numbers of users. As CNN reports, 18.8 million fake accounts were deemed fake and deleted, meaning that the app lost 30 percent of its users.

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Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande, Kim Kardashian, Taylor Swift