In a matter of minutes users lose hundreds of followers and followed accounts
According to network security and ethical
hacking specialists from the International Institute of Cyber Security, Instagram
has confirmed that some users are losing a considerable number of followers due
to a platform error. In addition to the loss of followers, the error also
causes the accounts followed by users to decrease in some cases.
Some users just noticed the error and began to
complain: “According to Instagram, I lose 4k followers in and stopped following
100 people in a matter of minutes. What’s going on?” posted the user Stephanie
Duran in her Twitter account.
Steve Bartlett, CEO of the world’s largest
digital marketing agency, published in his Twitter account: “Last night, Instagram
eliminated inactive or bot accounts from all accounts on the platform. I woke
up with messages from hundreds of influencers claiming that they had lost
millions of followers while they slept”.
The company claims that it is aware of the
incident and its network
security teams are working on a solution: “We are aware of the problem
that is causing a change in the numbers of followers of some accounts. We are
working to resolve it as soon as possible”.
Several hours after the first statement,
Instagram published an update stating that the problem would be resolved around
noon on Thursday, February 14; this was the last update the social network
published about the incident.
Network security specialists believe that this
could be part of the campaign to eliminate fake, inactive or spam accounts that
Instagram had announced since last year, although this has not been confirmed
or denied by the company. On the other hand, some consider that if the problem
were related to the elimination of fake followers, Instagram would have
confirmed this assumption.
More updates are still expected from the
Facebook-owned social network.
