Timberlake, Bieber among musicians with most fake Instagram followers

Two Justins made it into the top 10 list of musicians believed to have the most fake followers on Instagram.

Almost one-third, or 29.17% of Justin Timberlake’s 67,000,000 Instagram followers, are estimated to be fake. That amounts to 19,543,900, putting him at the very top of that humbling list, according to new research by Scams.info via their website of the same name.

Meanwhile, 26.42 % of Canadian Justin Bieber’s 264,300,000 Instagram followers, or 69,828,060, are thought to be fake, putting him at No. 8 on the top 10 list.

In joint second place is Nicki Minaj and Katy Perry, who both have an estimated 28.39% of fake Instagram followers while Chris Brown places fourth with an estimated 28.29% of fake Instagram followers.

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Justin Bieber at the Met Gala in New York on Sept. 13, 2021. Mario Anzuoni/Reuters Files

Not even Swifty can escape the trend with Taylor Swift placing 10th on the list with an estimated 26.35% fake Instagram followers.

In this study, scams.info used Instagram analytical tool, Modash.io, to discover the percentage of fake followers between Nov. 15-16, 2022.

“Spam bots, or fake accounts are automated profiles that manipulate real-life behaviour by following, liking and connecting with other users,“ said Scams.info spokesperson Nicholas Crouch in a statement.

“Bots threaten online security, making it harder to see how many real humans engage with your content.”