LOS ANGELES—It is bug bedlam on social media right now. In the past 24 hours both Instagram and Twitter have reported major bug issues affecting engagement and follower numbers.
INSTA-BUG
It is pure chaos on Instagram right now. From all the adult accounts getting suspended all the time to fluctuating follower counts, it is making people question their loyalty to Instagram. Instagram confirmed today that users were seeing a drastic drop in followers. Some people started speculating if Instagram was culling inactive and fake accounts or doing a mass cull of accounts with content they don’t like. Some people lost as many as half a million followers. The bug that is causing the accounts to be removed from follower numbers are also unfollowing accounts as well.
Instagram tweeted that they are aware of the issue and working on fixing it. Let me just say that Instagram tweeting about their tech problem is an irony that is not lost on me.
If you see massive changes in your following or follower count, don’t panic, it is just a bug and Instagram is working on it. How long they will be working on it is another question.
TWIT-BUG
Are your likes and retweets suddenly way down? Don’t worry, it’s not you, it’s them. Twitter confirmed yesterday that they are working on fixing a problem with their notifications that has been inaccurately reporting like counts. The fluctuations in likes has made some people wonder if accounts were being suspended or deleted in mass. Was this another purge? No, just a Twitter bug. Twitter did not say if their fix restored any of the inaccurate like counts.
Though the issue may be fixed moving forward, your engagement history for the past day may be inaccurate.
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