Tag: account

Your Instagram Followers May Have Dropped – A Bunch of Celebrities’ Sure Did

If you recently awoke to find you now have significantly fewer followers on Instagram than you once had – get used to it. They’re likely not coming back.

Instagram has just initiated a purge of sorts – an attempt to rid the network of fake and spammy accounts.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, as Instagram said it was going to do this over a week ago.

…As more people join, keeping Instagram authentic is critical—it’s a place where real people share real moments. We’re committed to doing everything possible to keep Instagram free from the fake and spammy accounts that plague much of the web, and that’s why we’re finishing up some important work that began earlier this year.

We’ve been deactivating spammy accounts from Instagram on an ongoing basis to improve your experience. As part of this effort, we will be deleting these accounts forever, so they will no longer be included in follower counts. This means that some of you will see a change in your follower count.

Most of you won’t see any impact. If you’re one of those who will see a correction, you will receive a notification in the app directing you to additional information.

While the average Instagram user probably didn’t see too much of a dip (unless they were in the habit of buying fake followers), some high-profile accounts saw a giant dive in follower counts.

Based on data collected over at 64px.com, the top loser when it comes to followers is Instagram itself. The official Instagram account lost nearly 19 million followers , nearly 30 percent of its total base.

Big celebrities like Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande, Beyonce, and Kim Kardashian were also affect by Instagram’s crackdown on illegitimate accounts. They lost 5.7%, 7%, 3.7%, and 5.5% of their follower base, respectively.

But nobody was hit like Justin Bieber. Apparently, he had the most fake followers of all. The recent purge axed over 3.5 million of his followers, a nearly 15 percent drop.

I know it looks good to have more followers, but come on. Do you really want a bunch of spambots as followers? Does that really make you feel good?

December 19, 2014
Twitter: Accounts Were Compromised, but We Also Accidentally Reset Password

Earlier today, Twitter users began to report an interesting situation on (where else) Twitter. They claimed that they had received an email from Twitter that said their accounts had been compromised, and that their passwords had been reset. The email also prompted users to create a new password.

Of course, users were a bit skeptical about the legitimacy of said emails. Although many users did report that their accounts had been compromised, some users had received the email without any outward sign of any disturbance on their accounts.

Now, Twitter has released a statement on their status page that suggests that they believe some accounts were hacked, but that they messed up to by resetting passwords of accounts not affected by the hack.

Here’s that full statement:

We’re committed to keeping Twitter a safe and open community. As part of that commitment, in instances when we believe an account may have been compromised, we reset the password and send an email letting the account owner know this has happened along with information about creating a new password. This is a routine part of our processes to protect our users.

In this case, we unintentionally reset passwords of a larger number of accounts, beyond those that we believed to have been compromised. We apologize for any inconvenience or confusion this may have caused.

So if you receive an email from Twitter asking you to chance your password, you should probably do it.

November 8, 2012
Amazon Embraces Facebook Recommendation Feature
Despite being a pioneer in user recommendations and its overall leadership in the online shopping sector, Amazon has been slow to embrace social shopping. But a new feature launched yesterday allows Amazon shoppers who connect their Facebook account to Amazon to get recommendations from their Facebook friends on what to buy.

Numerous studies have shown that a friend’s recommendations have the most weight with shoppers, and the Amazon Facebook connection places the users friends right inside the buying cycle. Shoppers who connect their accounts can:
- Discover Amazon recommendations for music, movies and more based on Facebook Favorites and Likes.
- See upcoming birthdays and find your Facebook friends’ Amazon Wish Lists more easily.
- Get gift suggestions for your friends based on their Facebook Favorites and Likes.
- Explore your friends’ Favorites and see who has similar interests.
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July 28, 2010