If you logged into Instagram over the weekend, you may have noted a precipitous drop in your following count in the app.
Yeah, losing 5 million followers (as per this example from @tank.sinatra) would be hard to take, and would definitely have you questioning what you possibly could have said wrong to spark a mass cancelation.
Don’t worry, it’s not you. As confirmed by Instagram chief Adam Mosseri, there was a technical issue, which the team has now rectified in the back end of the app.
The IG team provided this explanation to SMT:
“A technical issue resulted in Instagram accounts seeing an inaccurate loss of followers in their Account Insights, but total follower counts on profiles were not impacted. The issue has since been resolved, and follower metrics in Account Insights are now accurate.”
So if you were impacted, it should be fine now, or it should be updated correctly at next refresh.
So no, you didn’t lose your whole IG audience, no you weren’t hacked, and no, your content hasn’t taken a nosedive of late.
It was a technical issue. Just breathe.
