Will Smith, Doja Cat among celebrities with most 'unfollowers' on Instagram
MANILA, Philippines — Actor Will Smith and rapper Doja Cat lead a number of celebrities who have seen their follower count on Instagram significantly drop in the last month.
Search engine optimization-focused website I Love SEO conducted a numbers-driven study by comparing the follower count of several celebrities in early June to the number in early July.
“Celebrities are scrutinized for everything they do, and sometimes this can have a devasting impact on their online presence," a spokesperson from I Love SEO said.
“As easy as it is for a celebrity to grow their following, it can be just as easy for them to lose followers. Many social media users follow people they admire and respect, and if a celebrity’s reputation gets damaged, it can result in a loss of followers, which is sometimes difficult to grow back.”
Doja Cat's drop in followers comes after her online "feud" with "Stranger Things" star Noah Schnapp when she called out the child actor for publicly posting screenshots of her direct messages (DMs) asking to be set up with his co-star Joseph Quinn.
The "Say So" singer soon found her Instagram followers go down by over 200,000 while Schnapp's count went up by about a million.
WIll Smith's follower count has been diminishing ever since his incident at the 2022 Academy Awards when he slapped presenter Chris Rock after the comedian made a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett. Later in the evening, Smith won Best Actor for "King Richard."
Related: Will Smith wins Best Actor, slaps Chris Rock at Oscars 2022
Smith has since apologized for the incident but was still slapped with a decade-long ban from Academy events and many of his projects were stalled. In the past month alone, Smith lost more than 256,000 Instagram followers or an average of 8,500 followers lost daily.
Pinkett Smith herself has lost a great deal of followers, with 12,200 followers or a daily average of 400 in the last month.
Another issue-broiled celebrity whose followers are decreasing is social media personality James Charles, famous for his beauty content.
Recently, Charles has been engaging in online feuds with other celebrities while individuals have come forward with sexual harassment cases. From early June to early July, Charles' Instagram followers went down by over 60,000 or 2,000 daily.
Actress and model Cara Delevingne had similar numbers lost to Charles, with more than 58,000 Instagram followers lost in the same timespan.
Athletes have also seen diminishing follower counts such as Olympic gymnast Simone Biles (29,100 followers lost) and footballer Mason Greenwood (23,400 followers lost); the latter was arrested earlier this year on suspicion of sexual assault and threats to kill, and has not played or trained since January 2022.
Other celebrities that lost a huge number of Instagram followers include singers Rita Ora and Robin Thicke, actresses Katherine Heigl and Whoopi Goldberg, footballer Hope Solo, and former US presidential daughter Tiffany Trump.
RELATED: Will Smith movies on hold following 10 years Oscars ban
