How to Remove Fake Followers — Step-by-Step Guide for Every Platform

Discovering that your social media accounts have accumulated fake followers can be frustrating, but the good news is that every major platform provides tools for removing them. Whether the fake followers were purchased intentionally, arrived through bot attacks, accumulated organically over time through spam account activity, or were even purchased by a competitor trying to sabotage your engagement rate, removing them is one of the most impactful things you can do for your account's health.

Removing fake followers delivers immediate benefits. Your engagement rate will increase because the denominator (follower count) decreases while your real engagement stays the same. Platform algorithms will begin showing your content to more of your genuine followers because the engagement signals improve. Your analytics will become more accurate, giving you better insights into what content truly resonates with your real audience. And your account's credibility will be strengthened for any brand partnerships or business opportunities that depend on authentic metrics.

In this guide, we provide detailed, step-by-step instructions for removing fake followers on Instagram, Twitter/X, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Before starting the removal process on any platform, we recommend first running a quick fake follower check using our free fake follower check tool — our advanced fake follower checker reveals the scope of the problem and pinpoints which metrics suggest fake follower activity.

Before You Start: How to Identify Fake Followers

Before you begin removing followers, you need to know what you are looking for. Fake followers typically share several common characteristics that distinguish them from genuine accounts. Understanding these characteristics will help you efficiently identify and remove the right accounts without accidentally removing real followers.

The key signs of a fake follower account include: no profile picture or a stock photo as the profile picture; an empty or nonsensical bio; zero posts or a very small number of generic reposts; following thousands of accounts but having very few followers themselves; a username that consists of random characters or follows a pattern like name_numbers_numbers; no genuine engagement activity such as thoughtful comments or story interactions; and account creation dates that cluster around the same time period, suggesting bulk creation.

For a comprehensive overview of all the red flags, read our detailed guide on how to spot fake followers. Once you can confidently identify fake accounts, proceed with the platform-specific removal instructions below.

How to Remove Fake Followers on Instagram

Instagram provides a built-in "Remove Follower" feature that allows you to remove individual followers without blocking them. The removed follower will not be notified, and they will simply stop following your account. Here is the step-by-step process for cleaning your Instagram follower list.

Step 1: Access Your Followers List

Open the Instagram app on your phone or go to instagram.com on your computer. Navigate to your profile by tapping your profile picture or the profile icon in the bottom right corner. Tap on your follower count to open the full followers list. You can use the search bar at the top of the followers list to search for specific usernames if you already know which accounts you want to remove.

Step 2: Identify Fake Followers

Scroll through your followers list and examine each account using the criteria described above. Look for accounts with no profile picture, no posts, random usernames, and suspicious following-to-follower ratios. On the Instagram app, you can tap on each follower's username to quickly view their profile and assess whether they appear genuine or fake. Pay particular attention to followers whose profiles are set to private with zero posts, as this is a common configuration for fake accounts that were created solely to follow other accounts.

Step 3: Remove Individual Followers

To remove a follower on the Instagram mobile app, go to your followers list, find the account you want to remove, and tap the "Remove" button next to their name. A confirmation dialog will appear asking if you want to remove this follower. Confirm the removal. On the Instagram website, click the three dots next to the follower's name and select "Remove this follower." The person will not be notified that they have been removed.

Step 4: Use the "Least Interacted With" Feature

Instagram provides a helpful sorting feature within your Following list (accounts you follow) that shows "Least Interacted With" and "Most Shown in Feed." While this primarily helps you unfollow accounts you do not engage with, checking the profiles of accounts that Instagram identifies as low-interaction can also reveal fake accounts that you may be following back. Remove these connections to further clean your account.

Step 5: Set Your Account to Private Temporarily

If you have a significant fake follower problem and want to stop new fake accounts from following you while you clean your existing list, consider temporarily setting your account to private. This means new followers will need to request approval, giving you the chance to vet each new follow request before accepting. Once you have completed your cleanup, you can switch back to a public account. Note that this strategy is best for personal accounts and may not be suitable for business accounts that rely on discoverability.

Step 6: Block and Unblock for Bulk Removal

If you need to remove a large number of fake followers quickly, the block-and-unblock method is faster than individual removal. When you block an account, they are immediately removed from your followers list. When you subsequently unblock them, they remain unfollowed but are not blocked, preserving a clean relationship state. To do this: go to the fake follower's profile, tap the three dots menu, select "Block," confirm the block, then immediately go back to the three dots menu and select "Unblock." This removes them as a follower without leaving them permanently blocked.

Important note: Instagram may temporarily limit your actions if you remove, block, or unblock too many accounts in a short period. To avoid triggering these limits, pace your cleanup to approximately 50 to 100 removals per hour, and spread the process across multiple sessions over several days if you have a large number of fake followers to remove.

After completing your Instagram cleanup, run your account through our Instagram fake follower checker again to measure the improvement in your authenticity metrics.

How to Remove Fake Followers on Twitter/X

Twitter provides several methods for removing fake followers, including individual removal, blocking, and using Twitter's built-in spam reporting tools.

Step 1: Review Your Followers List

Log in to Twitter and navigate to your profile. Click on your follower count to open the full followers list. Scroll through the list and identify accounts that exhibit fake follower characteristics: egg or default profile pictures, no tweets or only retweets, random alphanumeric usernames, following thousands but followed by very few, and accounts created very recently that already follow large numbers of accounts.

Step 2: Remove Individual Followers

Twitter introduced a "Remove this follower" option that allows you to remove followers without blocking them. From your followers list, click the three dots next to the follower's name and select "Remove this follower." The follower will be removed without notification. This is the cleanest method for individual removal and is the recommended approach for accounts where you want to maintain the possibility of future genuine interaction.

Step 3: Block Fake Accounts

For accounts that are clearly spam bots, blocking is appropriate and permanent. Go to the fake account's profile, click the three dots menu, and select "Block." Blocked accounts cannot follow you, view your tweets, or interact with your content. If you prefer a softer approach, use the block-and-unblock method described in the Instagram section above, which removes the follower without leaving a permanent block in place.

Step 4: Report Spam Accounts

Twitter encourages users to report spam and bot accounts to help improve the platform for everyone. When you identify a clearly fake account, click the three dots menu on their profile, select "Report," and choose "They are posting spam" or "They are a fake account." Reporting helps Twitter's detection systems learn to identify similar accounts in the future and may result in the account being suspended platform-wide, preventing it from following other users as well.

Step 5: Use Twitter's Built-In Quality Filter

Twitter offers a quality filter in your notification settings that reduces the visibility of content from suspected bot accounts. While this does not remove fake followers, it reduces their ability to interact with your content and helps maintain the quality of your notifications and mentions. Go to Settings, then Notifications, then Filters, and enable the quality filter option.

After cleaning your Twitter followers, verify the improvement with our Twitter fake follower checker.

How to Remove Fake Subscribers on YouTube

YouTube handles fake subscribers somewhat differently from other platforms because the subscriber relationship is one-directional and YouTube actively removes fake subscribers through its own detection systems. However, there are steps you can take to accelerate the cleanup process.

Step 1: Review Your Subscriber List

Go to YouTube Studio and navigate to the Channel Dashboard. While YouTube does not provide a complete scrollable subscriber list for channels with large subscriber counts, you can view recent subscribers in the "Recent subscribers" card on the dashboard. Look for channels with no profile picture, no uploaded videos, no playlists, and names that appear auto-generated or follow patterns suggesting bulk creation.

Step 2: Hide Subscribers from Your Channel

While you cannot directly remove individual subscribers on YouTube, you can block specific users from your channel. To block a subscriber, go to their channel page, click the flag icon or the three dots menu on their About page, and select "Block user." Blocking a user on YouTube prevents them from commenting on your videos and removes their subscription. This is effective but time-consuming for large numbers of fake subscribers.

Step 3: Report Suspicious Channels to YouTube

YouTube takes fake subscriber activity seriously because it distorts the platform's partner program metrics. If you notice a large influx of suspicious subscribers, you can report the issue directly to YouTube through the YouTube Help Community or through the "Send Feedback" option in YouTube Studio. Include details about the timing and scale of the suspicious subscriber activity. YouTube's spam detection team may investigate and remove the fake subscribers on their behalf.

Step 4: Wait for YouTube's Automatic Purges

YouTube periodically conducts subscriber audits where they automatically remove subscribers identified as spam, inactive, or bot-generated. These purges can sometimes remove thousands of subscribers at once, which may cause a sudden drop in your subscriber count. This is normal and healthy behavior. After a purge, your subscriber count will more accurately reflect your genuine audience, and your view-to-subscriber ratio will improve significantly. Check your channel's health with our YouTube fake subscriber checker.

How to Remove Fake Followers on TikTok

TikTok provides tools for managing your follower list, though the process requires working through the mobile app as TikTok's desktop interface has more limited follower management capabilities.

Step 1: Access Your Followers List

Open the TikTok app and go to your profile. Tap on your follower count to open the full followers list. TikTok's followers list is displayed in reverse chronological order, with the most recent followers appearing first. This is helpful for identifying fake followers because purchased followers typically appear as a cluster of new followers arriving around the same time.

Step 2: Identify and Remove Fake Followers

Scroll through your followers list and identify accounts with the hallmarks of fake profiles: default profile pictures, no videos posted, generic usernames with random numbers, and following counts in the thousands with few followers of their own. To remove a follower, tap the three dots next to their name and select "Remove this follower." TikTok allows you to remove followers without blocking them, and the removed user will not be notified.

Step 3: Block Persistent Bot Accounts

If you notice the same types of bot accounts repeatedly following your profile, blocking them is more effective than simply removing them. Go to the bot account's profile, tap the three dots in the top right corner, and select "Block." Blocked accounts cannot follow you or interact with your content in any way. This is particularly useful for dealing with bot networks that may try to re-follow your account after being removed.

Step 4: Adjust Your Privacy Settings

TikTok offers several privacy settings that can help reduce the accumulation of new fake followers. In your Privacy settings, you can restrict who can send you direct messages, who can duet or stitch with your videos, and who can comment on your posts. While these settings do not directly prevent fake accounts from following you, they reduce the value of your account as a target for bot networks that use fake followers as a gateway to spam messaging or comment manipulation.

Monitor your TikTok account health with our TikTok fake follower checker after completing your cleanup.

How to Remove Fake Followers on LinkedIn

LinkedIn's professional context makes fake followers particularly problematic, as follower counts are often used as credibility signals for business decisions. Fortunately, LinkedIn provides tools for managing your followers and connections.

Step 1: Review Your Followers and Connections

Log in to LinkedIn and navigate to your profile. Click on your follower or connection count to view your network. For personal profiles, review your connections list for profiles that appear fake: stock photo profile pictures, vague or implausible job titles, very few connections of their own, no activity or engagement history, and profiles that appear to have been created recently with minimal information filled in.

Step 2: Remove Connections

To remove a LinkedIn connection, go to the person's profile, click the "More" button, and select "Remove connection." Removing a connection also removes them as a follower. The person will not be notified that you have removed them, but they may notice that you are no longer connected if they visit your profile. For follower-only relationships (where someone follows you but you are not connected), you can block and then unblock them to remove the follower relationship.

Step 3: Manage Company Page Followers

If you manage a LinkedIn Company Page, you can view and manage followers through the Company Page admin dashboard. Go to your Company Page, click on "Analytics," then "Followers," to see your follower demographics and growth trends. While LinkedIn does not provide a one-click removal for company page followers, you can block suspicious accounts from the page to prevent them from following and engaging with your company content.

Step 4: Report Fake Profiles

LinkedIn actively combats fake profiles and encourages users to report suspicious accounts. To report a fake LinkedIn profile, go to the profile in question, click the "More" button, and select "Report/Block." Choose the reason that best describes the issue, such as "Fake profile" or "Spam." LinkedIn's trust and safety team will review the report and may remove the account from the platform entirely. Analyze any LinkedIn profile with our LinkedIn fake follower checker.

How to Remove Fake Followers on Facebook

Facebook offers different follower management tools for personal profiles and business pages. Both require manual effort to identify and remove fake followers, but the process is straightforward.

Step 1: Review Your Friends and Followers (Personal Profile)

For personal profiles, go to your Friends list by navigating to your profile and clicking on "Friends." Review the list for accounts you do not recognize, accounts with stock photos, accounts with no mutual friends, and accounts that show no genuine activity on their own profiles. You can unfriend these accounts by clicking the "Friends" button next to their name and selecting "Unfriend." If the account is a follower but not a friend, you can block them to remove the follower relationship.

Step 2: Manage Page Followers (Business Page)

For Facebook Business Pages, navigate to your page settings and look for the "People and Other Pages" section under the "Settings" menu. Here you can see people who like your page and people who follow it. While Facebook does not provide a direct "remove follower" option for pages, you can ban specific accounts from your page, which removes them as followers and prevents future interaction. To ban someone, click the settings gear icon next to their name and select "Ban from Page."

Step 3: Report Fake Accounts

Facebook encourages users to report fake accounts to help maintain platform integrity. To report a suspicious account, go to their profile, click the three dots menu, and select "Find Support or Report Profile." Choose "Fake Account" as the reason. Facebook's automated systems and human review team will investigate the report. If the account is confirmed fake, it will be removed from the platform entirely, automatically removing it from your followers and everyone else's.

Step 4: Adjust Page Settings to Prevent Future Fake Followers

In your Facebook Page settings, you can enable options that help reduce fake follower accumulation. Enable the profanity filter and keyword blocks in your moderation settings to prevent spam comments from bot accounts. Review and adjust your page's audience restrictions if needed. While these settings will not remove existing fake followers, they help prevent new ones from engaging with your page in ways that could attract additional bot activity. Use our Facebook fake follower checker to assess your page's authenticity.

How to Remove Fake Members on Telegram

Telegram channels and groups are heavily targeted by fake member services. Removing fake members requires admin access.

Step 1: Use Admin Tools to Review Members

Open your channel or group settings and go to the Members list. Sort by "Recently Joined" to spot bulk additions. Fake members often join in waves — look for clusters of accounts that joined within the same hour or day.

Step 2: Identify Fake Members

Fake Telegram members typically have no profile photo, generic names (like "User" or random characters), no username set, and show as "last seen a long time ago" or "last seen recently" without actual activity. They never view messages or interact.

Step 3: Remove and Ban Suspicious Members

As an admin, tap on suspicious members and select "Remove from Group" or "Ban User." For channels, you can remove members through the admin panel. Consider using Telegram bot tools like Combot or Group Butler to automate detection and removal of inactive accounts.

Step 4: Restrict New Member Additions

Enable "Restrict Adding Members" in group settings to prevent fake member services from adding bots. Set up a welcome bot that requires new members to verify they're human before participating. Use our Telegram fake member checker to monitor your channel's authenticity over time.

How to Remove Fake Followers on Pinterest

Pinterest provides limited tools for follower management, but you can still clean up fake followers.

Step 1: Review Your Follower List

Go to your Pinterest profile and click on your followers count. Scroll through the list looking for accounts with no boards, no pins, no profile picture, or that appear to be spam accounts.

Step 2: Block Fake Followers

Visit each suspicious profile, click the three-dot menu, and select "Block." Blocking a user on Pinterest automatically removes them as a follower and prevents them from interacting with your content.

Step 3: Report Spam Accounts

For obvious spam or bot accounts, use Pinterest's "Report" feature to flag them. Select "Spam" as the reason. Pinterest reviews reports and may remove the accounts entirely from the platform.

Step 4: Monitor Monthly Viewers

After removing fake followers, monitor your monthly viewers metric. A healthy Pinterest account should see monthly viewers that are 2-20x their follower count. If this ratio improves after cleanup, it confirms you removed inactive accounts. Use our Pinterest fake follower checker to track progress.

How to Remove Fake Followers on Snapchat

Snapchat's privacy-focused design makes follower management different from other platforms.

Step 1: Review Your Friends/Subscribers List

Go to your profile, tap "My Friends" to see who follows you. Look for accounts with very low Snap Scores (under 100), default Bitmoji avatars, or usernames with random character strings.

Step 2: Remove Friends

Long-press on a suspicious account, tap the gear icon or "More," and select "Remove Friend." This removes the connection in both directions. For public profiles, subscribers cannot be individually removed, but you can block them.

Step 3: Block Persistent Fake Accounts

For accounts that keep re-adding you, use "Block" instead of "Remove." Blocked accounts cannot see your content, send you snaps, or add you again. Go to the account > tap the three-dot menu > Block.

Step 4: Adjust Privacy Settings

Go to Settings > Privacy Controls and set "Contact Me" and "View My Story" to "Friends Only" to prevent fake accounts from following your public content. Use our Snapchat fake follower checker to analyze your follower authenticity.

How to Remove Fake Followers on Threads

Since Threads is linked to Instagram, fake Threads followers often originate from Instagram. Cleaning up one platform can help the other.

Step 1: Access Your Followers List

Open Threads, go to your profile, and tap your followers count. Scroll through looking for accounts with no posts, no profile picture, generic usernames, or accounts that follow thousands but have very few followers themselves.

Step 2: Remove Individual Followers

Tap on a suspicious follower's profile, then tap the three-dot menu and select "Remove follower." This removes them without blocking — they won't be notified.

Step 3: Block Persistent Bot Accounts

For accounts that re-follow after removal, use "Block" from their profile menu. Blocking on Threads also blocks the account on Instagram and vice versa, providing cross-platform protection.

Step 4: Clean Up Instagram Simultaneously

Since Threads followers come from Instagram, also audit your Instagram followers using our Instagram fake follower checker. Removing fake Instagram followers often automatically cleans up your Threads audience. Use our Threads fake follower checker to verify your cleanup progress.

Best Practices for Ongoing Fake Follower Management

Removing fake followers is not a one-time task. Fake accounts continuously target active social media profiles, and even after a thorough cleanup, new fake followers will accumulate over time. To maintain a healthy, authentic audience, adopt these ongoing practices.

Schedule Regular Audits

Set a recurring calendar reminder to audit your accounts for fake followers at least once per quarter. For accounts that are actively growing or running advertising campaigns, monthly audits are recommended. Use our free fake follower check tool to quickly run a fake follower check and identify any new fake follower accumulation.

Monitor Growth Patterns

Pay attention to your follower growth patterns over time. Sudden spikes in followers that do not correspond to viral content, press mentions, or advertising campaigns should be investigated immediately. The sooner you identify and address fake follower influxes, the less impact they will have on your engagement metrics and algorithmic standing. Understanding how to spot fake followers in real-time is key to quick detection.

Track Your Engagement Rate

Your engagement rate is the most sensitive indicator of fake follower activity. If your engagement rate drops without any change in your content quality or posting frequency, fake followers may be the cause. Refer to our Instagram engagement rate guide for current benchmarks, and investigate any significant deviations from expected performance. A declining engagement rate in the absence of content changes is one of the most reliable early warning signs of fake follower accumulation.

Avoid Practices That Attract Fake Followers

Certain social media practices are known to attract higher volumes of fake followers. Follow-for-follow schemes, engagement pods, and generic giveaway contests that require only a follow to enter all tend to attract bot accounts and low-quality followers. Focus instead on growth strategies that attract genuinely interested followers: creating valuable content, engaging authentically with your community, using relevant hashtags, and collaborating with other genuine creators in your niche.

By combining regular audits with smart growth practices, you can maintain an authentic, engaged audience that accurately represents your real influence and delivers genuine value to your brand partnerships and business goals. The effort invested in removing and preventing fake followers pays dividends through improved engagement rates, better algorithmic performance, and stronger credibility with brands and collaborators.

Sources: Instagram Help Center, YouTube Support, Twitter Help Center