Do Celebrities Buy Instagram Followers? What's on Record

Some have, and the record is mostly about the seller. In January 2018 a New York Times investigation, "The Follower Factory," found celebrities among the customers of Devumi, a company that sold fake followers. Devumi sold more than 200 million of them and shut down soon after. It settled with New York's Attorney General in January 2019 and with the FTC in October 2019, for $2.5 million. A purge is weaker evidence. When Instagram deleted millions of spam accounts in December 2014, big accounts lost millions of followers, which shows spam accounts had followed them. It doesn't show who paid.

We read Wikipedia's Devumi page and the FTC's 2024 rule through our server on October 23, 2026. The 2014 and 2018 news coverage refuses our reader, so we quote it as Google shows it. We don't name people as buyers. We run Hclout, which sells followers, so weigh this the way you'd weigh any seller.

Quick Answer: Yes, some have. The 2018 Devumi investigation found celebrities among a fake-follower seller's customers. A celebrity losing followers in a purge is a different thing, since a purge removes spam accounts that followed the profile.

What's on the record?

Date	What happened
December 18, 2014	Instagram deletes millions of spam accounts
January 27, 2018	The New York Times publishes "The Follower Factory"
January 30, 2019	New York's Attorney General settles with Devumi
October 21, 2019	The FTC settles with Devumi's owner for $2.5 million
August 14, 2024	The FTC bans buying fake followers for commercial use

Wikipedia's Devumi page and the FTC's 2024 announcement, read October 23, 2026, and the news coverage as Google shows it.

Newsweek's summary of the Times story ran two days later under the headline "55 Celebrities and More Who Have Fake Followers." The Times found that "a number of those celebrities buy at least a portion" of their following, as Newsweek put it. The FTC called its own case the "first-ever complaint challenging the sale of fake indicators of social media influence."

Does losing followers in a purge mean someone bought them?

No. In December 2014 Instagram "removed millions of accounts believed to be posting spam," the BBC reported, "angering many legitimate users." Justin Bieber lost 3.5 million followers, 15% of his total, according to The New York Times. The purge hit ordinary users too, which is why it angered them.

Evidence	What it shows
A purge loss	Spam accounts followed the profile
A seller's records	Someone paid for followers on it
Low engagement	A warning sign only

Our reading of the 2014 and 2018 coverage.

A big purge loss shows how many spam accounts followed a profile. Only records like Devumi's show who paid for them.

Why would famous accounts buy followers?

The ranking answers mostly speculate. A Reddit thread from 2021 put the common theory plainly: buying them "makes it more likely for other (real) people to follow them if they see a big number." Brands caught on. BookingAgentInfo notes that they spot fakes "usually by calculating a celebrity's engagement rates."

Is buying Instagram followers illegal now?

In the US, since 2024, the FTC's rule "prohibits anyone from selling or buying fake indicators of social media influence." It's limited to cases where the buyer "knew or should have known" they were fake and used them to misrepresent influence "for a commercial purpose." Our page on whether buying TikTok followers is illegal covers the penalties.

HCLOUT

We sell followers too, so take this as our pitch. We focus on quality over inflated numbers. Our free tier gives 12 free Instagram likes and 100 free Instagram views on a public post, on the free page. There's no password and nothing to install, and a short Cloudflare check runs before each claim.

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Frequently asked questions

Do celebrities buy Instagram followers?

Some have. The 2018 New York Times investigation into Devumi found celebrities among its customers, and the company later settled with New York's Attorney General and the FTC.

What was the Devumi scandal?

Devumi sold more than 200 million fake followers until The New York Times exposed it in January 2018. It shut down soon after and settled with the FTC in October 2019 for $2.5 million.

What was the Instagram purge of 2014?

Instagram deleted millions of spam accounts in December 2014. Big accounts lost millions of followers, Justin Bieber 3.5 million of them.

Does losing followers in a purge mean someone bought them?

No. It shows spam accounts followed the profile. Only a seller's records, like Devumi's, show who paid.

Is buying Instagram followers illegal?

Since 2024, US federal rules ban it when fake followers are used to misrepresent influence for a commercial purpose. This isn't legal advice.

How can you tell if an account has fake followers?

You can't prove it from the outside. Very low engagement for the follower count is a warning sign, and brands check engagement rates for that reason.

Sources

• Wikipedia, "Devumi," read October 23, 2026, citing The New York Times ("The Follower Factory," January 27, 2018) and the FTC's release of October 21, 2019
• Federal Trade Commission, final rule on fake reviews and fake social media indicators, August 14, 2024, read October 23, 2026
• Newsweek (January 29, 2018), The New York Times Bits blog (December 18, 2014), BBC News (December 19, 2014), Paul Weiss and TechCrunch (October 2019) and National Law Review (May 1, 2019), as Google's results show them
• Google results for "do celebrities buy followers," US, October 23, 2026 (our read), including Reddit and BookingAgentInfo
• Hclout's free tier and homepage, read October 23, 2026
• Google Ads Keyword Planner, worldwide, and Search Console, read October 23, 2026