‘If you care enough, you can do this’: Woman’s ChatGPT trick to see who’s unfollowed you sparks debate
A woman shared a Reel explaining how to see who unfollowed you on Instagram using ChatGPT. Summer Brown (@summerstrawberries) posted the video on Dec 25, 2024 using a green screen of herself over a screen recording of her phone as she gives her viewers step-by-step instructions.
In the video, she said, “Here’s how you can find out who unfollowed you on Instagram using ChatGPT. Go to ‘Settings’ in the corner, and then go to ‘Account Center.’ And then go to ‘Your information and permissions.’ Right there. And then Download your information. Download or transfer.”
“And then you can choose your accounts. Whichever ones,” she continued. “Then hit ‘Some of your information.’ Scroll down and then hit…where is it? Keep going, keep going. ‘Followers and following.’ Then download to your device, create files, and there you go. Then it’ll download all this information into a ZIP, then go to the folders and download the following and followers. Go to ChatGPT and you can upload these files directly.”
On the screen recording, she pulled up ChatGPT and typed into the prompt box, “Who doesn’t follow me back on Instagram?” Then she uploaded the ‘following and followers’ file.
“And there you go. If you care enough, you can do this,” she ended the video, looking into the camera.
Her Reel is trending and has over 392K views, with mixed responses. Some people disagreed with her methods; others questioned why she needed to know this information.
“‘Who doesn’t follow me back’ is not the same data set as ‘unfollowed,’” @lolahami replied.
@liam407 commented, “lmao IG will do the most unnecessary updates but won’t just show us who unfollowed us.”
Another person pointed out that she didn’t need to feed ChatGPT her data to look at the lists, writing, “Girl.. just open the file if you have downloaded it and you can see the usernames of those people. Why you gotta ask chatgpt lol”
“This isn’t effective at all, because it doesn’t show who unfollowed you,” @j4_official45 said, “it simply shows which of the people you follow don’t follow you back which is pointless, because through this data, when a person unfollows you it won’t appear there anymore.”
According to Business Insider, the only way to see if someone has unfollowed you within the Instagram app is to search for their username in your followers list or search for your name in their following list. However, this only works if you don’t have a large following or if there's someone specific you want to search.
Meanwhile, travel website Lifestyle Asia explained in their May 2024 post about Instagram unfollows that the reason why you get a notification when someone follows you—but not when they unfollow you—is because it is a matter of privacy rights. The only accurate method of finding out the list of people who have unfollowed you, they say, is to install third-party apps that use Instagram’s API to find out who has unfollowed your account.
Lifestyle Asia warns, “Please note that many third-party apps can put your account security at risk. Instagram strictly advises against what unofficial developers can do, which is why in 2018, the platform made major changes to keep your personal information safe. As a result, many third-party apps stopped working as Instagram’s API (application program interface) completely barred it.”
@summerstrawberries did not immediately respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment via Instagram direct message.
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