"300M by January" — Internet reacts to Beyoncé allegedly losing Instagram followers in the wake of Jay-Z lawsuit

In the wake of the s*xual lawsuit filed against Jay-Z, it appears that the social media following of the rapper's wife, Beyoncé, has also been impacted. On Tuesday evening, an X user called @YSLONIKA posted screenshots of Beyoncé's Instagram profile on the platform.

While no time stamp was added to either screenshot, the Cowboy Carter singer had 320 million followers in one of them, while her follower count was down to 317 million in the second one. The caption attached to the X post read:

"Beyoncé’s followers count dropping like flies omg..."

The tweet has since gone viral on X, receiving over 1.2 million views, 19K likes, and 1K re-shares.

One user tweeted:

Some X users are criticizing Beyoncé's decision to be with Jay-Z, while others claim that she is very likely to be involved or have knowledge of the Roc Nation owner's actions.

"Lmfao. I mean it is what it is. But if it’s due to the Jay stuff… y’all acting like she or he have been proven guilty. Weird world, but I guess where there’s smoke there’s fire" - commented an X user.

"I guess it's true what they say.... If you lay with a dog, you end up with fleas." - posted a second one.

"I mean did yall think she dont know or isnt involved?" - replied a third user.

"-7m followers in 2 months? yikes. not even diddy lost that much." - wrote a fourth one.

"See what happens when you choose to stick by your man?" - added a fifth user.

Meanwhile, other netizens claimed that Jay-Z's lawsuit has nothing to do with the drop in Beyoncé's follower count.

"Y’all really might be the slowest fanbase on Twitter. like it takes a couple clicks to see that EVERYONE is losing followers." - replied another one.

"Idk who to blame anymo" - added a seventh user.

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Beyoncé and Jay-Z have accused the lawyer behind the lawsuit in a statement issued

The speculations of Beyoncé losing followers on Instagram come after her husband was mentioned as a defendant in a civil lawsuit filed against him on Sunday, December 8.

The s*xual assault lawsuit was filed by Tony Buzbee on behalf of his client - an anonymous complainant who claimed that she was assaulted by both Jay-Z and Diddy at an MTV VMA after-party in September 2000. The victim was allegedly a 13-year-old minor at the time.

Buzbee had initially filed the lawsuit in October, mentioning Diddy as a defendant in it alongside "a celebrity and public figure." However, last Sunday, the amended lawsuit named Jay-Z as the unnamed celebrity mentioned earlier.

Jay-Z has since denied all the allegations placed against him in the lawsuit, issuing a statement of his own on social media, calling Buzbee "a deplorable human being" in it. In his statement, the Brooklyn's Finest rapper added that he wouldn't be paying any money in response to the attorney's previously sent demand letter, and implored him to file a criminal complaint in place of a civil one.

The Guardian reports that Carter's lawyer - Alex Spiro - has filed a lawsuit against Buzbee, accusing him of trying to "extort exorbitant sums" of money from Jay-Z via false claims of assault against a minor.

Spiro has also written a letter requesting an expedited federal court hearing to address the allegations Buzbee has placed against the So Ghetto rapper. The formal letter states:

"Due to the highly sensitive nature of this matter and the intense media scrutiny it has generated, we respectfully request to be heard on an expedited basis. For the avoidance of doubt, Mr. Carter is entirely innocent. This is a shakedown. JAY-Z is not a suspect or even a person of interest in that case."

Jay-Z's lawsuit against Tony Buzbee appears to be the outcome of his public statement, in which the Takeover rapper concluded by saying that he looked forward to showing the attorney "just how different" he was from the other celebrities he was categorized with.

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Sean "Diddy" Combs, who is currently detained at the Brooklyn Metropolitan Correctional Center, is named a co-defendant in the lawsuit involving Jay-Z. Per The Guardian, Buzbee has filed at least 20 civil lawsuits against the hip-hop mogul, the trial for which will begin on May 5, 2025.