MANILA, Philippines – Instagram instituted a culling of spam and inactive accounts Thursday, December 18, resulting in many popular accounts losing a noticeable number of followers in the aftermath.

Web developer Zach Allia notes in an infographic that popular Instagram users like Justin Bieber, Kim Kardashian, and Ariana Grande  lost anywhere from 5% to 15% of their follower counts.

For instance, Justin Bieber’s account previously had 23.8 million followers. After the culling, more than 3.5 million followers were taken out, resulting in a 15% decrease in followers.

Kim Kardashian lost 5% (approximately 1.3 million) of her 23.5 million folllowers.

Comparatively, Beyonce – with 22.2 million followers before the removal – lost only 831,000 followers (3.7%), now making her more popular than Justin Bieber in terms of overall follower count.

Follower counts tend to show a celebrity’s power when it comes to amplifying messages or boosting a signal online – an indicator of desirability when it comes to potential advertising.

While the accounts taken down were not real followers, the removal of spam accounts and inactive users will likely shift power to more authentic users who use Instagram regularly rather than towards spam bots. – Rappler.com