Instagram conducted what users are calling a "meme purge," after accounts with large followings were permanently suspended on Thursday and Friday for violating the platform's terms of service.

Many of the accounts that were suspended took part in networks where other Instagram users could pay to get their accounts promoted on the popular pages, which had a combined reach of over 30 million followers.

One Instagram user told INSIDER he was using his income from selling promotions to help pay for college, while others claimed to make upward of $200,000 a year from the practice.

A Facebook spokesperson told INSIDER that selling promotions doesn't violate the platform's terms of service, but that the accounts that were removed repeatedly attempted to abuse internal processes.

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Instagram seems to have purged most of the top meme accounts on the platform. On Thursday and Friday, reports that meme accounts with follower counts in the hundreds of thousands and even millions were being permanently banned for violating the platform's terms of service.

In total, according to a user who ran "@spicy.mp4" and "@memeextraordinaire," the accounts reached tens of millions of followers, combined, and the users who ran the accounts have already lost out on hundreds of thousands of dollars in combined income.

An 18-year-old named Caige told INSIDER that many of the accounts, including his own ("@yerdank" and "@autist"), were part of networks of meme accounts that had a consolidated process of bringing in income. For around $150-$200, an Instagram user could buy a 24-hour promotional post from the network, which would then promote the user on around three different accounts.

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Caige told INSIDER he was able to make anywhere between $50 and $400 a day when he partook in selling promotions through his network, and that he was on track to make $30,000 annually in 2020. He used his income in part for his college tuition, and is studying computer engineering.

He said he would like to find a new way to make income through social media, but likely wouldn't have time to pursue other avenues due to his college workload.

A spokesperson for Facebook told INSIDER that the practice of selling promotions through a network of accounts doesn't violate Instagram's terms of service, but that the accounts that were removed likely violated other terms.

Caige told INSIDER that he did not partake in practices like buying and selling usernames or sending personal information, like bank account numbers and addresses, through the platform. He claims he did not break any of the terms of service Instagram seemingly penalized accounts for, and that "they are just finding an excuse to eliminate the meme pages."

Those who run meme accounts have not necessarily gained a lot of sympathy, with Caige and others facing the argument that they profited off stolen content. Meme accounts, including high-profile accounts like "@thefatjewish" and "@fuckjerry" have faced criticism for reposting other people's content, sometimes without attribution.

One difference between these high-profile accounts, which are still up on Instagram, and ones run by people like Caige is that the 18-year-old and people in his network promoted individual Instagram users, as opposed to operating independently as an advertising agency, like Jerry Media, the company behind @fuckjerry.

In the past, platforms like Twitter have taken a stand against similar practices like "tweet-decking," when popular Twitter accounts amplified stolen content through the tweet management system Tweetdeck to make money and go viral. Accounts could buy retweets or subscription packages, but Twitter now defines the practice as "spam."