In recent days, global online communities have been buzzing over Meta’s unprecedented large-scale “purge” of Instagram accounts. According to reports and viral reactions on Threads/X, Instagram removed millions of bot, spam, and inactive accounts within a very short period of time. Instagram had previously carried out bot purges before — most notably the 2014 “Instagram Rapture” — but many believe this latest crackdown is even larger in scale.

As a consequence of this account sweep, countless celebrity accounts — from football stars, actors, singers, idols, to influencers — experienced dramatic follower drops overnight. Cristiano Ronaldo reportedly fell from 673 million to around 666 million followers, while Lionel Messi dropped from 512 million to 507 million. Kylie Jenner reportedly ℓσѕт around 15 million followers, while Selena Gomez was also reported to have ℓσѕт more than 6 million followers.

Among K-pop idols, BLACKPINK’s group account was reportedly one of the hardest нιт by the purge, losing around 10 million followers. The members’ individual accounts also saw significant follower declines: Lisa — 1.1M, Rosé — 700k, Jennie — 700k, and Jisoo — 600k.

As one of the world’s biggest K-pop superstars with Instagram influence comparable to the celebrities mentioned above, BTS and the members’ Instagram accounts quickly became a major topic of discussion among netizens as well.

Many posts circulating on X (Twitter), Threads, and TikTok claimed that BTS’s Instagram account ℓσѕт as many as 7 million, or even 10 million followers following Meta’s purge. These news posts attracted mαѕѕive engagement, with some reaching over 2 million views, leading many netizens to believe that BTS was also among the artists most heavily affected. Some even mocked and made insulting jokes about BTS and ARMY because of the news.

However, those claims are not actually true!

According to statistics compiled by both ARMYs and other neutral tracking accounts, BTS did experience follower losses after Instagram’s fake-account cleanup, but the actual numbers were far lower than what had been spreading online. BTS’s official group account reportedly ℓσѕт only around 600 thousand followers in total. Meanwhile, the combined follower losses across all BTS members’ personal accounts were estimated to be only around 100–150 thousand followers altogether.

These figures are considered insignificant for accounts with tens of millions of followers and relatively minor compared to many other artists. This means that the rumors claiming BTS “ℓσѕт” 7–10 million followers were completely false and greatly exaggerated.

Another detail that caught the attention of netizens was that BTS did not appear at all on a list of the 17 artists most heavily affected by the fake-account purge, which was shared by a neutral statistics account. This further proves that the group’s actual losses were relatively low compared to the overall average and also reflects the “organic” quality of their followers.

After the truth came to light, many ARMYs became convinced that the earlier false reports were an attempt to damage BTS’s image. However, facts remain facts, and BTS has never needed to rely on fake accounts or follower boosting to become successful. Fans expressed various reactions under posts clarifying the truth:

- Some accounts love to spread panic on the timeline. Lying when your favs have ℓσѕт double the followers they ℓσѕт

- They really have to lie because they can’t accept that their favs are the ones that ℓσѕт the 10 million??

- One of the West influencer ℓσѕт 14 million, so everyone is being affected by it. But many people love to exaggerate things when, in reality, their own idols are the ones who actually failed

- It’s really not a big deal . Why are people panicking more over Ig followers than music. I ℓσѕт 10 inactive followers too lmao

- Others ℓσѕт as many as 10 million followers, but BTS only ℓσѕт around 1 million. This fandom is truly so real. It’s just that some people can’t count, while others are simply shameless liars.

- The only thing blonks used to brag about were instagram followers, so now what do they have to say about removals

- Meanwhile BTS only ℓσѕт a relatively small amount compared to other huge artists. That says a lot about how genuine ARMY actually is

- Funny how everyone rushed to mock BTS before even checking the actual numbers

- Some people were celebrating too early just to end up being proven wrong a few hours later

- BTS never needed bots or fake followers to stay relevant. Their fanbase has always been organic and active