Reason behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi’s huge Instagram follower drop emerges
- Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and several global celebrities reportedly lost millions of followers after Instagram carried out a major bot purge
- Ronaldo reportedly lost around 18 million followers, while Messi and Dwayne Johnson were each said to have lost about five million
- Instagram has not officially commented on the purge, which also reportedly affected figures including Donald Trump, Justin Bieber and Kylie Jenner
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi were among several global celebrities who reportedly lost millions of followers after Instagram carried out a major bot purge on the platform.
Many users took to social media to reveal huge drops in their follower counts after millions of fake and inactive accounts were reportedly removed within a six-hour period.
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Instagram regularly carries out clean-up operations aimed at removing bots and cracking down on spam accounts, but the latest purge appeared far more aggressive than usual and reportedly affected some of the world’s biggest stars.
Logan Paul and KSI reportedly lost hundreds of thousands of followers, while Ryan Reynolds, co-owner of Wrexham AFC, also saw a significant decline.
Dwayne Johnson, also known as The Rock, is believed to have lost around five million followers, the same reported figure as eight-time Ballon d’Or winner Messi.
Meanwhile, Brazilian superstar Neymar reportedly saw his follower count fall by four million.
However, it was Ronaldo who appeared to suffer the biggest drop. Reports claimed the Portuguese superstar lost around 18 million followers despite remaining the most-followed person on Instagram.
The Al Nassr superstar currently has around 666 million followers on the platform, where he regularly shares content about his lifestyle, football career, sponsorships and commercial partnerships.
Instagram has not officially commented on the reported purge, which also appeared to affect public figures including Donald Trump, Pope Francis, Justin Bieber and Kylie Jenner.
According to previous reports from CNN, Ronaldo earns an estimated £2.57 million per Instagram post, more than any other celebrity.
That value has reportedly risen dramatically over the years. Ronaldo and his team previously charged around £250,000 for a third of his social media output during a digital-only partnership with Sport Lobster, an app that former Michael Owen invested in.
Harry Hugo, the company’s former head of social, told Rising Ballers:
“We were the first guys to be a digital-only deal with Cristiano Ronaldo for a quarter of a million pounds.
“That was for the year, for a third of his social media output. So we're talking like nearly 30-40 posts that are dedicated to Sport Lobster, dedicated with a link to download and that cost a quarter of a million quid.
“It costs a million quid for him to turn up to a TV photoshoot and now it costs a million quid for him to post on anything. So it was an unbelievable deal.
“It got to a point where every time he posted it would generate us like two thousand downloads. He had a hundred million followers.”
Source: YEN.com.gh
