Instagram Bug: Many Lose Millions of Followers Due to “Instagram Purge”

It seems as though Instagram has purged millions of fake and inactive accounts, as many users experienced a sharp decrease in their follower base. Popular accounts and active users expressed their concerns for the random social media event all over the world. But what seemed to be an Instagram purge turned out to be something completely different. It is now being described as a “bug” by multiple social media experts, and is currently being dealt with as an internal issue.

Instagram’s tweet read: “We’re aware of an issue that is causing a change in account follower numbers for some people right now. We’re working to resolve this as quickly as possible.”

Instagram made a statement on Twitter regarding the issue through their official account, “We’re expecting to have this issue resolved by 9 a.m. PST tomorrow…” Interestingly, Instagram as a company was also impacted negatively by this technical malfunction, as they too lost millions of supporters.

The Facebook-owned platform is now informing its users directly about this bug through an in-app notification. It further states that the issue is a bug in the software and not related to the overall application performance.

However, this is not the first time Instagram has encountered a “glitch” in their program. During November of last year, the social media platform announced that it would be deleting accounts that seem to be from a third-party app used to synthetically grow an audience base.

“Recently, we’ve seen accounts use third-party apps to artificially grow their audience. Starting today, we will begin removing inauthentic likes, follows and comments from accounts that use third-party apps to boost their popularity.

We’re taking a number of steps to limit this kind of unwelcome behavior. Accounts we identify using these services will receive an in-app message alerting them that we have removed the inauthentic likes, follows and comments given by their account to others. We will also ask them to secure their account by changing their password”, as previously stated by Instagram regarding last year’s changes.

Social media consultant Matt Navarra even shared an excel file listing huge Instagram accounts that had massive drops in followers. Katy Perry, for example, lost 900,000 followers; Kylie Jenner also lost 2.5 million followers.

Even sport fashion brand Nike lost a large number of followers, which dropped from 84,600,000 to 83,500,000. One of Buzzfeed’s account, buzzfeedtasty, also lost 700,000 followers. Even social media mogul 9gag dropped from 48,600,000 to 49,800,000 followers.

Celebrity stylist James Charles took his feelings on Twitter when he lost over half a million followers. Singers Ariana Grande and Selena Gomez couldn’t escape from Instagram’s purge either, each losing 3 million and 2 million followers respectively.


While some users expressed their confusion when checking their accounts, the extent of how the bug has affected the platform is still largely unknown. The specifics are not well defined, as the error may have caused different changes on different accounts. 

Fans even expressed their dismay on Twitter as their accounts had massive reductions in their follower base. The disappearances have yet to be fully explained.

when 100s of fan accounts run by real people are being deleted on your platform but drawing giraffes seems more important

— dee (@ayydweeba) January 14, 2019

Nathan Kinsella, founder of Manila based iProfit Social shared his thoughts with Inquirer on Friday. “We work with thousands of IG accounts daily and although most saw a drop initially their follower accounts have all returned to normal within 48 hours. We expect Instagram to continue to police inauthentic behavior and we welcome the removal of such accounts from the platform.”

However, Instagram hasn’t been the only one cleaning up their social platform. Twitter has already started wiping out fake accounts and bots. These changes directly affect political figures, celebrities, and “influencers,” as the reach of their exposure is effected. Because the number of Twitter followers has always been considered a metric of popularity, the follower count can influence various business, political, and social agendas. Because these accounts carry real world implications and power, many argue that the removal of fake accounts is beneficial to the platforms. The Instagram influencers that get paid tens, to hundreds, to thousands of dollars for Instagram content may be doing so through using fraudulent account behavior. The social media platforms recognize that this market manipulation is concerning. The problem solely lies on people buying followers to boost their popularity. Is this type of market manipulation through ingenuine marketing tactics an inevitable side effect of mass social media exposure?

While we all know how important followers are for influencers, especially when cash is on the line, we hope that Instagram and Facebook are able to remedy these technical issues and establish a secure means for companies to promote their product or service.

source: usa.inquirer.net

Twitter flies on surprisingly strong numbers

SAN FRANCISCO–Twitter shares shot higher by some 30 percent Tuesday after its quarterly report showed surprisingly strong revenue and user growth, despite a widening loss.

The popular one-to-many messaging service said its quarterly loss widened to $145 million from a $42 million loss a year ago.

But revenue more than doubled from a year ago $312 million in the three months that ended June 30, with the number of monthly active users hitting 271 million, up 24 percent year over year.

The “adjusted” results, which exclude certain expenses and stock compensation, showed a modest profit of $15 million, better than expected. That along with the rise in use evidently bolstered confidence of investors who pushed the stock up more than 30 percent to $50.30 in after-market trading.

“They seem to be doing the right thing,” said Gartner vice president of mobile computing Ken Dulaney.

“It is well-advertised on TV. Companies put Twitter IDs on pitches. It is kind of ingrained in what we do.”

And, the analyst noted, there is plenty of room for Twitter to evolve, perhaps into a more extensive real-time news service tightly linked to television programming.

Twitter’s loss included $158 million in stock-based compensation.

Twitter took in $277 million from advertising, a 129 percent increase from the same period a year earlier.

Ads served up on Internet-linked mobile devices accounted for 81 percent of that revenue in a sign that the San Francisco-based firm was tending to the business side of following users onto smartphones and tablet computers.

About a third of Twitter’s revenue came from outside the United States, with International revenue climbing 168 percent to $102 million, earnings figures showed.

“Our strong financial and operating results for the second quarter show the continued momentum of our business,” Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo said in the earnings release.

“We remain focused on driving increased user growth and engagement, and by developing new product experiences, like the one we built around the World Cup, we believe we can extend Twitter’s appeal to an even broader audience.”

Helped by World Cup 

Forrester analyst Nate Elliott saw the earnings numbers and user growth figures as encouraging, but only a little bit.

Twitter use in the second quarter of this year was up just six percent from the first three months, and that was with the help of storms of tweets fired off during the World Cup football tournament in Brazil.

“The wind was in their sails,” Elliott said of Twitter. “You would have liked to see them do a lot better than that on users.”

Twitter does appear to be making progress on user numbers and is showing they can bring in money from the people already on the service, according to the analyst.

“And in making progress, they are reminding us that they aren’t there yet,” Elliott said.

“Things are moving in the right direction, but you have to wish they would move a little faster.”–Glenn Chapman

source: technology.inquirer.net

Katy Perry is new queen of Twitter

SAN FRANCISCO—Pop star Katy Perry has overtaken Justin Bieber as the most followed person on Twitter.

The latest figures Monday showed 46,534,966 followers for the singer best known for hit songs such as “Teenage Dream,” California Gurls,” and “I Kissed a Girl.”

That overtook the number of followers of the Canadian teen star, at 46,510,838.

Shea Bennett of the “All Twitter” news blog noticed the change at the top on Sunday and said Perry was now likely to be the first to get to 50 million.

“Bieber has been quite active on his profile this weekend as he’s on tour in Brazil, but Perry hasn’t tweeted since Oct. 31, so expect a little more action coming her way once she gets back on the train,” Bennett wrote.


“In the meantime, Justin could claw his way back, although I think the momentum is against him.”

Bennett noted that Bieber took Twitter’s top spot from Lady Gaga back in January, “and if history has taught us anything about placement #1 on Twitter, it’s that once you’ve been leap-frogged by another user you never get it back again.”

source: technology.inquirer.net

Danielle Fishel Responds To Twitter Bullies​​

Danielle Fishel wasn’t afraid to take direct aim at those criticizing her in a Twitter rant on Tuesday. This weekend, Fishel made headlines when she married her boyfriend of nearly five years, Tim Belusko.



However, some people attempted to sully her wedded bliss. The actress became the target of online bullies dishing out unwarranted hate about her weight and her relationship.

On Tuesday, the 32-year-old actress took to Twitter and slammed the critics.

“People are giving me shit for marrying someone younger than I am. Tim is mature, responsible, loving, & kind. Way to judge people, Internet,” Fishel wrote. “You know what makes dealing with rude comments easy? Love & happiness. I’ll just keep being the happiest me & you keep being the rudest you.”

And just when you thought she was done ranting, she said this:

“Ppl saying I was FAT @ my wedding: u r the worst kind of ppl on the PLANET. I weigh 107 pounds & am 5’1″. YOU are the reason anorexia exists,” she wrote, adding, “I hope you’ll look at your own miserable lives and learn to stop judging others on their weight and looks. Love and happiness wins again.”

Fishel has a good point, and maybe it’s about time that someone, who isn’t related to the Kardashians, actually tells the truth. Maybe it’s about time people realize that life isn’t perfect. Kim Kardashian was recently called a “whale” because she gained weight during her pregnancy.

What is this world coming to?

We need more people like Fishel.

source: newsoxy.com

‘RIP Facebook’ trending on Twitter

MANILA, Philippines — “RIP Facebook” became a trending topic on Twitter Monday night after a number of users seemed to be having trouble logging in to the popular social networking site.

Facebook users see this message upon logging in: “Facebook is down for required maintenance right now, but you should be able to get back on within a few minutes.”


Users of the social network who are already logged in cannot seem to post status messages, photos and other stuff. The chat service remains to be functioning though.

As of posting, RIP Facebook is on the third spot of the top trending topics on Twitter in the Philippines.

source: technology.inquirer.net

US teens are getting bored with Facebook

Teens may be getting bored with Facebook and trying out other social networks such as Instagram, and the social networking giant is aware of the trend.

A report on BusinessInsider said Facebook itself noted the trend in its annual 10-K report, where it said its younger users are engaging with "other" products and services.




"We believe that some of our users, particularly our younger users, are aware of and actively engaging with other products and services similar to, or as a substitute for, Facebook. For example, we believe that some of our users have reduced their engagement with Facebook in favor of increased engagement with other products and services such as Instagram," it quoted Facebook as saying.


Such a trend may lead to "a decline in user engagement and our business could be harmed," it quoted Facebook as saying.

BusinessInsider also quoted Adam Ludwin, developer of social photo album app Albumatic, as saying most members of a focus group of people under age 25 told him they did not like how the app relied heavily on Facebook.

"They gave me the typical teenage response: 'We're bored with Facebook,'" Ludwin told Business Insider.

Even Branch CEO Josh Miller recently asked his 15-year-old sister if she still used Facebook - and learned teens are more fascinated with Instagram and Snapchat.

 "She mentioned that she tries to visit Facebook as infrequently as possible," he wrote.


 He also said his sister told him she only visits Facebook after she is finished with Instagram.

Not even Facebook Chat could give Facebook much help - Miller quoted his sister as saying that when one goes on Facebook Chat, "the people you don’t want to talk to are always the ones who immediately chat with you.”

But BusinessInsider noted teens are not quite closing the door on Facebook and deleting their profiles from the site.

"They're just looking to use the service less, and they're open to communicating on other platforms," it said.

Besides, it said Instagram is a property of Facebook, and founder Mark Zuckerberg "can still monetize them on mobile devices." — TJD, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com

Facebook lets users take more data home

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook has begun letting members of the world’s leading online community take more of their pictures, posts, messages and other data home with them.

Facebook has expanded the types of information its approximately 845 million members could download from their personal account histories to include data such as friend requests and IP addresses of computers used to log-in.

“This feature will be rolling out gradually to all users and more categories of information will be available for download in the future,” Facebook said in a message at its Public Policy Europe page.

The move comes as the California-based Internet star works to reassure regulators, members and advocacy groups concerned about how much privacy and control of personal information people have at Facebook.

The “Download Your Information” tool was launched in 2010 to allow Facebook members to keep copies of what they share with friends at the social network.

Facebook is expected to make a much-anticipated debut next month on the technology-heavy NASDAQ exchange. Facebook in February filed to go public and could raise as much as $10 billion in the largest flotation ever by an Internet company on Wall Street.

Facebook, which is shifting operations to a former Sun Microsystems campus in the California city of Menlo Park, had a reported net income of $668 million last year.

Revenue nearly doubled to $3.7 billion in 2011, with most of it coming from targeted advertising gleaned from personal information shared by the platform’s hundreds of millions of users.

Facebook’s value has been estimated at between $75 billion and $100 billion.

source: japantoday.com

Tweet Angel Will Give You A Phone Call If Someone Bad-Mouths You On Twitter

In this day and age, your presence on a social network can be of the utmost importance, especially when you’re running a small (or not so small) business. Although it may seem superfluous, and social networking may not be your personal cup of tea as a fancy-pants entrepreneur, you and your company can live and die by social media, especially Twitter. If you don’t want to immerse yourself in that particular culture’s habits and practices, but you don’t want to become a social media laughing stock, there’s a Rube Goldbergian solution you can try. Tweet Angel will keep an eye on Twitter for you and notify you — by the old-fashioned method of telephonery — if anyone is talkin’ smack.

The concept is foreign to me, but apparently there are people out there who have a surplus of money and a deficit of time. These kind of people, I suppose, would be the ones willing to pay a monthly fee for the luxury of not having to keep up with the social media Joneses. For the low, low price of $19.95 to $29.95 per month (with a special $9.99 introductory offer), Tweet Angel will perform a number of services for you, all of which basically amount to “acting as a phone to Twitter interface.”

The main service Tweet Angel provides is as mentioned above; they’ll keep an eye on your feed, read your mentions and give busy-old-you a call if someone complains and uses your Twitter handle (or maybe #Screw[YourName] as a hashtag) while doing it. At that point, depending on what services you’re paying for ($19.95 vs $29.95), you can either go take care of it yourself or dictate a response right to that fellow on the phone.

The downside is that while Twitter never sleeps, the folks at Tweet Angel do. As such, you can only expect prompt (within the hour) notifications of negative tweets during their standard office hours, 8:00 a.m EST to 10 p.m EST. That could be an issue if someone with a lot of followers gets particularly miffed late at night, or in a different time zone. They do, however, work 365 days a year. Also, they max out at 30 complaint notifications per month, so don’t have too many enemies.

It’s an interesting idea, sure, but a questionably applicable service. Sure, I may not be the best judge because I happen to love Twitter and also don’t own a business but if I did own a business and was informed that I’d have to keep a really close eye on Pinterest, however, I might consider such a service. In any event, it sure is amusing because really, who talks on the phone? People who don’t understand or bother with Twitter, I guess.

source: http://www.geekosystem.com/tweet-angel-phone-calls/

Facebook's Zuckerberg joins opposition to US ‘censorship’ bill

No less than the head of the world’s biggest social networking site has joined the opposition against pending bills in the United States that several groups said may censor the Internet.

Mark Zuckerberg said the Internet is the most powerful tool for an open and connected world, and should not be curbed because of “poorly thought-out laws.”

“The Internet is the most powerful tool we have for creating a more open and connected world. We can’t let poorly thought out laws get in the way of the internet’s development,” Zuckerberg said in a post on his Facebook account.

He added Facebook, which has 800 million members, opposes the US Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect-IP Act (PIPA), and will “continue to oppose any laws that will hurt the Internet.”

Zuckerberg said Facebook has been working with political leaders who are pro-Internet on “better alternatives to these current proposals.”

“I encourage you to learn more about these issues and tell your congressmen that you want them to be pro-Internet,” he said.

As of 7.58 a.m. Manila time, Zuckerberg’s post had gained 373,369 likes and was shared 72,412 times.

Facebook said that while it takes online piracy and copyright infringement very seriously, it believes SOPA and PIPA “are not the right solution to this problem, because of the collateral damage these overreaching bills would cause to the Internet.”

“PROTECT IP and SOPA could create very real problems for Internet companies like ours that are a primary driver of innovation, growth, and job creation in the 21st century economy. The bills contain overly broad definitions and create a new private cause of action against companies on the basis of those expansive definitions, which could seriously hamper the innovation, growth, and investment in new companies that have been the hallmarks of the Internet,” it said.

Also, it voiced concern about provisions in the bills that could chill free expression or weaken the Internet’s architecture.

“We understand the concerns of the film and music industries, as well as other content creators and trademark owners, and we have been engaging in a constructive dialogue on the most effective ways to combat piracy. However, we must ensure that Congress does not do anything in this area that threatens the security of the Internet, hampers U.S. innovation or competitiveness, or sets harmful precedents for other governments to follow. We ask Congress not to rush this process. It’s too important not to take the time to get it right,” it said.

Facebook said it responds promptly whenever it is made aware of illegal content on its site.

It has a reporting system in place and a trained team dedicated to handling rights owner notices. — RSJ, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com