Justin Bieber threatened to make his Instagram account private if his fans continued to post hateful comments about him and his girlfriend Sofia Richie (Daily Mail). The comments began after Bieber began posting several images of him and Richie in the backseat of a car (People).  A few days later his ex girlfriend, Selena Gomez got involved. She commented on his post “If you can’t handle the hate, then stop posting pictures of your girlfriend lol- It should be special between you two only. Don’t be mad at your fans. They love you and supported you before any one ever did” (Time). Bieber then responded “It’s funny to see people that used me for attention and still try to point the finger this way. Sad. All love.” He later commented again “I’m not one for anyone receiving hate. Hope u can all be kind to my friends and eachother. And yes I love my beliebers.” actually deleted his Instagram account all together after making it private and public again all within a few minutes. The singer had 77.8 million followers. Gomez then posted a collage including pictures of her with her fans with the caption“My whole life. You matter most. Thank you letting me do what I love every day.” It did not directly mention Bieber but People wrote that the post “seemed to throw shade” at the singer.

When Bieber threatened his fans, many beliebers took to twitter to make fun of the fact that the singer did not realize that the 77.8 million followers he had would still be following him and would still see everything he posted if he went private. One tweet by the user @niazartkid said “does justin bieber knows that even if he puts his Instagram on private theres still about 77million ppl following him who will see his posts” the tweet had 138 retweets and 178 likes. Another tweet by @girlhoodposts had 106 retweets and 229 likes. It said”#SelenaEndedJustinParty Justin does realize that he has 77.7m followers and going private isn’t going to get rid of those… dumbass smh”. The hashtag used in the tweet trended with over 1.17 million tweets (Pinkvilla). According to Time many tweets in the hashtag were Gomez’s fans suppporting her, some were Bieber’s fans happy that someone stood up for them, others tweeting were just living for the drama and the shade. After Bieber deleted his account, Gomez took to Snapchat, sharing to her story an image that read “What I said was selfish and pointless” (Us Weekly).

This incident was not the first time Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez, AKA Jelena have hashed out their disagreements using social media and it certantly wasn’t the only drama Justin found himself in on the app. “Rumours have been a flying that Justin has been flirting with and dating Victoria’s Secret model Barbara Palvin, taking her to see The Lion King and getting close to her for pics; and now Selena has tweeted a picture of Justin that has ol’ Babs in the background,” shared Sugarscape in 2012. Lil Twist orriginally posted the picture and quickly deleted it. Gomez reposted the image with the caption “……” to Twitter (Hollywood Life). Instagram comments tend to get Bieber in Trouble. In January Bieber commented on Ariana Grande’s post saying she looked good. Grande then took to Twitter: “not today satan !!!!!! gtg finish this music & live my cute, drama free life !!” Another instance where Bieber got burned on Instagram was when he shared an image of Cindy Kimberly with the caption “Omg who is this!!” Apparently he didn’t notice the icon in the corner of the image signifying that she was tagged. Fans did and called him out on it in the comments saying “N*gga ifk why your 4th grade IQ equivalent ass brain didn’t think to look at the tag instead of sending us on a mission like we’re the next installment to blues clues” (Twitter).

When you have 77.8 million followers, sometimes when you’re sharing personal things with that many strangers, it can get out of hand. The absence of Instagram in Beieber’s life may enhance it by creating less drama. Of course, it would also be easier for the singer if people weren’t so outspoken behind a keyboard. Many of the things said the the singer online would not be said to his face. This is especially true with fans and people he does not know. If other people did not get involved with his relationship with Richie, he may still have Instagram and the fight between Bieber and Gomez on Instagram may not have happened. Though it is one less social media platform to use to promote his music, the internet can unfortunately distort the way phrases are meant to be said. Sometimes taking breaks from social media can help keep a person sane. Bieber is learning to be more vocal about what needs to be done for his own mental health.