Kim, Khloe Kardashian, Kylie Jenner lose 13M Instagram followers in Meta ‘bot’ sweep
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: The Kardashian-Jenner family is facing a major social media blow. Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner and Khloe Kardashian were among several high-profile celebrities who reportedly lost millions of Instagram followers after Meta carried out a large-scale cleanup of bot and inactive accounts on Wednesday, May 6.
According to OK! Magazine, the Kardashian-Jenner trio saw their combined follower counts drop by more than 13 million. The sudden decline came as celebrities and fans woke up to what the internet has dubbed “The Great Purge of 2026,” following Meta’s latest move to remove fake and inactive profiles from its platform.
Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner and Khloe Kardashian lose millions of followers
According to data shared by Social Blade, Kylie Jenner, Kim Kardashian and Khloe Kardashian lost more than 13 million Instagram followers combined during Meta’s massive cleanup of fake and inactive accounts, widely referred to online as “The Great Purge of 2026.”
Kylie reportedly lost 5,071,791 followers, while Kim’s account dropped by 5,109,246. Khloe also saw a significant decline, losing nearly 3.7 million followers from her page.
Despite the drop, Kylie remains one of Instagram’s biggest celebrities. The beauty mogul, who is currently the platform’s second most-followed woman behind Selena Gomez, still has around 383 million followers.
The reported cleanup also affected several Hollywood stars, athletes and influencers across Instagram. “As part of our routine process to remove inactive accounts, some Instagram accounts may have noticed updates to their follower counts,” the report quoted.
“Active followers remain unaffected, and any restored suspended account will be added back in after verification.”
Among other celebrities reportedly impacted, football star Cristiano Ronaldo lost around 6.6 million followers, while Lionel Messi saw nearly 4.8 million followers disappear. Selena Gomez also reportedly lost about 5.4 million followers.
Meanwhile, Dwayne Johnson lost close to 4.8 million followers, Ariana Grande reportedly dropped around 5.5 million, and Beyonce lost nearly 4.4 million followers.
What is ‘The Great Purge of 2026’?
“The Great Purge of 2026” is the name social media users have given to Instagram’s reported mass removal of fake, inactive, spam and bot accounts from the platform. The alleged cleanup led to millions of followers disappearing from celebrity, influencer and brand accounts within hours.
Although Meta has not officially confirmed a large-scale purge, the company has previously stated that it routinely removes inactive and fake accounts to improve authenticity on Instagram. Reports also claim the platform targeted accounts linked to third-party follower-boosting services that artificially inflate follower numbers, as per Metalverse.
