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Followers are abandoning Justin Bieber in droves.
And the Biebs is expressing his feelings.
A sudden, six-figure drop in social media followers is usually a sign that something is wrong.
Is flipping off his own fans the best move here?
Oh no! Justin Bieber is losing followers!
Recently, Justin Bieber has lost a six-figure volume of Instagram followers.
Make no mistake — he retains a vast following on he photo-sharing platform (and beyond).
But he has reportedly shed about 270,000 followers.
Roughly speaking, that’s as if every single resident of Aurora, Colorado had previously been following him — and then, in rapid succession, all independently decided to hit unfollow.
What happened?
Social media accounts do not require unfollowers to conduct exit interviews.
Sometimes, people just declutter their feeds. Inactive accounts, overly active accounts, and accounts that no longer hold the follower’s interest get the axe.
Some unfollows are very deliberate — be it a controversial public figure or a decidedly former friend.
Others are not. And, on an individual level, you don’t have to be a public figure for an unfollow or two to go unnoticed. (And if you do notice, hey, sometimes people just deactivate their accounts)
All that we know is that Justin was close to hitting another 100 million milestone. Instead, he’s down the population of a small-to-mid-sized city.
Why is Justin Bieber losing followers?
Fans and remaining followers of Justin Bieber are openly speculating about why he got hit with so many unfollows.
Some on social media have speculated that Instagram might simply not be counting followers accurately.
(Notoriously, this happens on multiple platforms)
Others have suggested that Meta, the notorious company that owns Instagram, may have conducted a bot purge.
“Every bot purge hits him for like 1-2M followers,” tweeted one fan.
Others suggested that a series of purges have cost Justin closer to 10 million followers over the past month, but we cannot verify that.
Aside from bot purges, followers may be actively choosing to unfollow the Biebs.
Some suggest that Justin becoming a family man has ruined the fantasy for some longtime fans. Others have pointed out that Justin’s thirst traps are few and far between these days.
Justin’s behavior has also been alarming in recent years. Not everyone wants to witness an apparent downward spiral.
Finally, the Biebs has posted weird genAI content. He probably doesn’t know any better, but, like with his cringe Cybertruck, he really should. Plenty of people will automatically unfollow over genAI slop, and they’re right to do it.
— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) December 1, 2025
Is this his response?
When Justin Bieber posted a selfie in which he is directly flipping off the camera (and, by extension, his fans and followers), he did not choose to provide context.
Many infer that he was responding to the mass unfollow. That is possible, though certainly an assumption.
We should point out that losing 270,000 — though a substantial number — is only a drop in the bucket compared to his 293 million followers.
Specifically, it comes out to about 0.09% … which is, and this is true, not a large percentage.
Still, some estimates put his followers dropoff higher. Public perception has definitely changed, and not all Beliebers are in for the long haul. But that’s part of life.
Justin Bieber: Lashing Out After Hemorrhaging Followers? was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.