Suddenly noticed a spike in your Instagram followers? Gained them in hundreds? Buzzing inside at the thought of how popular your latest selfie has made you?
We hate to burst your bubble but the sudden increase in follower count on Instagram is not a testament of your popularity - at least not now - as a bug is causing the same to fluctuate!
That's right, the Facebook-owned photo and video sharing service has revealed that a bug is causing the unexpected surge in users' follower numbers. The developers of the app are working on getting the issue sorted.
"We've identified a bug causing incorrect follower counts to appear on some profiles. We're working to fix it, and any counts that have been affected will be restored when we've resolved the issue," notes Instagram in a Help Center post.
Over the weekend, loads of Instagram users noticed a dramatic gain in new followers by hundreds and in some cases even 100000 to their account. Several Instagram users took to Twitter to share their thoughts, with some worrying that the increase could be owing to the site getting hacked.
Did Instagram just credit everyone with new followers or did fake profiles get reactivated? Numbers are up.
— Liz Hernandez (@LizHernandez) July 10, 2015
Some even joked about the overnight increase.
so I gained over 1.3K new Instagram followers over night.. did someone buy me followers...
Hip-hop artist Jake Miller also joked about the sudden gain in followers.
When you wake up with 50,000 new Instagram followers? Lol #IDontGetIt #ButImNotMad — Jake Miller (@jakemiller) July 10, 2015
Instagram later cleared the air and confirmed that the increase in followers was due to a bug and not anything else.
Once the bug, which is causing the unexpected increase in a user's follower count on Instagram, has been sorted, the follower count will go back to normal. Technically, no people were unfollowing or following an individual but only the follower numbers reflected on a person's profile had seen a spike.
Photo: Syed Ikhwan | Flickr
