Celebrities and Influencers with the Most Fake Followers on Instagram
Olivia Cole 
Fashion icons, make-up gurus, or pop stars – influencers have become some of the biggest names on social media over the past few years. Many envy their fame, their seemingly glamorous lifestyle, and their association with popular brands that bring them thousands of dollars for a single post.
Recently, however, it has become clear how easy it is to buy fake likes, comments or even followers on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. It turns out that anyone can appear popular simply by purchasing thousands of followers from dedicated online agencies – a trend that platforms find difficult to curb. Along with the many social influencers who sometimes buy these bots, a number of celebrity influencers have also been found guilty of sustaining a massive fake following. The team at CasinoGuardian decided to look at the accounts – whether owned by celebrities or not – that have amassed the highest percentage of fake followers on Instagram.
Interestingly, the list features some of the most famous musicians and TV personalities, including Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj and Khloe Kardashian. However, those with the most fake followers are influencers who rose to fame on social media.
Methodology
In order to analyse influencers’ followers on Instagram, the team at CasinoGuardian used the free Instagram fake-follower auditing tool by Modash. It automatically analyses accounts using a variety of metrics and provides statistics such as follower count, engagement rate, proportion of fake followers and popular content.
Typically, you can spot a fake account by looking at a few tell-tale signs – bots have strange names and share no personal information, while their comments are usually irrelevant, out of context, or simply generic phrases such as “Amazing!” or “Great photo”. They often contain no posts. Accounts with a large percentage of fake followers tend to have a lower engagement rate – far below 1%. In other words, their posts attract far fewer likes and comments than would be expected given the large follower count.
What Are Fake Social Media Followers?
Bots, fake or spam accounts, are inauthentic profiles that imitate real people on social media platforms. They are created by hackers and agencies for various purposes – some are designed to post malicious links, others share fake news and attempt to influence public opinion, mainly on political issues. Other bots simply subscribe to or follow different users in order to artificially boost their following.
It is not always easy for platforms to identify and remove bots – as soon as thousands of them are deleted, thousands more are created. In April, Elon Musk said he would do his best to finally tackle Twitter’s huge problem with fake accounts. Even after acquiring the platform in late October, he still has not managed to defeat the hordes of bots that have plagued the social media site for the past few years.
Fake followers are particularly problematic for brands wishing to work with influencers on advertising campaigns. Authentic influencers build a trustworthy reputation by being honest with their followers and by cultivating a genuine relationship. Having fake followers can damage their reputation, as well as the image of the brands they collaborate with.
Why Would Celebrities Need Fake Followers?
It is easy to imagine that an aspiring social media influencer might resort to purchasing fake likes, comments or followers. But why would celebrities need them? In reality, most have not bought influence through bots – instead, they are simply victims of the same fraud faced by regular social media users because of the way fake accounts operate.
In order to imitate real people, fake accounts include a name and a profile photo (often stolen from other platforms) but rarely a bio or any other personal information. To appear active, they post generic comments and follow a certain number of accounts – for instance, 20 or 200. Logically, brands’ and celebrities’ accounts attract the most bots. Celebrities with the highest percentage of fake followers on Instagram are Katy Perry, Kourtney Kardashian Barker, Khloe Kardashian, Chris Brown and Miley Cyrus. Over 28% of their followers on the platform are estimated to be bots.
Influencers with the Most Fake Followers
Sometimes, young Instagram users who aspire to become famous influencers find it hard to gain popularity in the traditional way – by creating original, valuable content, targeting the right audience and being honest and genuine in what they do. Some of them might therefore buy fake likes, comments and followers, boosting their visibility and statistics artificially.
Whether the influencers on the list below have purchased bots or not, a huge number of their followers are believed to be fake. These include the Dubai-based Iraqi-American beauty influencer and owner of cosmetics line Huda Beauty, British TV presenter, model and fashion designer Alexa Chung, and popular YouTuber and professional boxer Jake Paul.
