Here come the tears. And we're not even being silly; people are legitimately freaking out right now because they have just lost anywhere from tens to hundreds (to thousands) of followers on Instagram.

"I HAD 5K NOW I HAVE 2.1K CRYING FOLLOW FOR FOLLOW," yelled one Instagram user.

"I LOST 50+ FOLLOWERS F*** YOU INSTAGRAM," wrote another, as reported by Business Insider.

No, it's not the Insta-geddon. However, Instagram is definitely to "blame" for the sharp, unexpected decrease in followers that some users are experiencing. Here's the thing, though: It's not as if Instagram is suddenly kicking real users off the service. The accounts that have disappeared are either inactive or faketheir sole purpose being to prop up a person's follower count, even though the accounts themselves are worthless.

So, it's not that big of a loss, right? Just numerical?

"We're in the process of fixing an issue that incorrectly includes inactive or fake accounts in follower/following lists. We want to maintain the best possible experience on Instagram, so we do our best to remove spam, fake accounts, and other people and posts that don't follow our Community Guidelines. As we remove these accounts, some people may notice a decrease in their follower/following counts," Instagram wrote.

"Note: This issue was fixed for the majority of Instagrammers in April 2014. By the end of December 2014, it should be fixed for the remaining members of the Instagram community," the Facebook-owned company said.

Instagram is a bit vague when it comes to defining the accounts it's purging. To get the axe, an account has to spam, be fake, or otherwise violate the service's community guidelines. As for what it takes to be labeled as a spammer or a fake account, we're not quite surethough we suspect it's pretty easy to tell from Instagram's perspective.

On its community guidelines, Instagram notes that users have to follow a few basic guidelines: Only sharing photos and videos they've taken, no nudity or mature content, don't be a jerk to others, and don't spam, to name a few of the major ones. Accounts that violate some of these terms, depending on what the account is specifically doing, could find themselves removed from Instagram sans warning.

And it almost goes without saying, but Instagram is not actively encouraging users to "confirm" their accounts by posting a specific picture or by using a specific hashtag. We recommend you don't do that, unless you want your account to get blasted by annoying spammers.

For more, check out the video below and PCMag's roundup of Instagram tips in the slideshow above, as well as 9 Weird Instagram Accounts You Should Follow.

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