Instagram deletes millions of accounts in spam purge

Rapper Akon lost more then half his followers in what has
been dubbed the "Instagram rapture"

Photo-sharing app Instagram has removed millions of
accounts believed to be posting spam, angering many
legitimate users.
People who lost a lot of followers criticised the action,
dubbing it the "Instagram Rapture".
Like its parent company Facebook, Instagram routinely
removes accounts to limit spam and prevent users buying
followers to appear more popular.
Rapper Akon reportedly lost 56% of his followers in the cull.
Figures collated by developer Zach Allia - not affiliated to
Instagram - totted up the impact of the purge on the site's
top 100 accounts.
The big losers were Justin Bieber (minus 3,538,228
followers), and an online marketing specialist called
Wellington Campos, which lost 3,284,304 followers
overnight.
One account, chiragchirag78, lost 99% of his followers -
3,660,460 - before he himself was deleted.
Instagram's own account on the site lost 18,880,211
followers overnight.
'Omg'
Instagram had warned its users that the deletion was
coming in a blog post earlier this month.
"We've been deactivating spammy accounts from Instagram
on an ongoing basis to improve your experience," wrote
chief executive and founder Kevin Systrom.
"As part of this effort, we will be deleting these accounts
forever, so they will no longer be included in follower
counts. This means that some of you will see a change in your follower count."

Matt McGorry, star of Orange is the New Black, joked
about the deletions

Matt McGorry, star of Orange is the New Black, joked
about the deletions
Reacting to the purge, many of the site's users directed
harsh words at Instagram - while others saw the lighter
side.
Rapper Ma$e, who lost more than a million followers,
deleted his account after he was accused of paying for more
followers, while video blogger Jamie Curry tweeted: "I lost
30k followers on instagram omg."
Matt McGorry, an actor who has starred in prison drama
Orange is the New Black, wrote: "There may be 545k
Instagram followers left but my 11k spam followers that
disappeared took a piece of my heart with them.
"I'll honour the memory of each of my 11k spam Instagram
followers that I lost with the lighting of candles. Well, one
candle. I only have one."