The Challenge star Suzanne Mutesi has broken her silence following claims she bought one million Instagram followers.
The 36-year-old Sydney-based socialite shared footage of American rapper Cardi B’s infamous speech at the 2018 iHeartRadio Awards on social media in response to jealous influencers.
“I want to thank my haters,” Cardi said in the clip. ‘They’re downloading my stuff so they can listen and talk nonsense about it—but it benefits me.’
The Challenge star Suzanne Mutesi has broken her silence after claims she bought one million Instagram followers
The actress and influencer, who has been a part of Sydney’s social scene for the past three years, shut down her social media pages last week after she was accused of being a ‘pretentious socialite’.
Jamie Azzopardi, a prominent Sydney stylist, accused the self-described ‘award-winning writer’ of exaggerating her popularity with ‘fake’ Instagram followers to gain access to red carpet events, sponsorships and media gigs.
After months of whispers about his credibility, Azzopardi, who has known Mutesi for years, opened the floodgates with a tell-all interview on the So Dramatic podcast.
“It fascinates me how she went from 200,000 followers pre-lockdown to 1.2 million and is on a reality TV show where she is a representative of influencers,” he added.
According to Azzopardi, publicly available data on Social Blade, a website that tracks analytical information for social media platforms, she bought ‘75,000 followers’ ahead of Sydney Fashion Week – and ‘challenged’ to prove Mutesi wrong ‘ Gave.
He also claimed Mutesi, 36, bought automated comments, views and likes so that his Instagram engagement could match his increased follower count, a claim he denied to Daily Mail Australia.
The influencer, who has been a part of Sydney’s social scene for the past three years, shut down her social media pages last week after she was accused of being a ‘shamed socialite’.
‘Just release your insight, and I’ll stop talking. I admit I’m wrong, I don’t do it often, but I will say publicly that I was wrong.
Speaking to Daily Mail Australia last week, an emotional Ms Mutesi denied buying followers and said her numbers were so high because she is a ‘go-getter’.
However, Social Blade statistics show that her followers have jumped by several thousand at once without explanation, which is extremely rare and often indicates bot activity.
A prominent Sydney stylist, Jamie Azzopardi (pictured), accused the self-described ‘award-winning writer’ of inflating her popularity with ‘fake’ Instagram followers to gain access to red carpet events, sponsorships and media gigs.
His followers have increased by 531,400 in the past year without explanation, an unusual increase for someone relatively unknown.
The growth rate for accounts of the same size as Mutsee’s is only 12.04 per cent per annum.
Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Mutesi dismissed all of Azzopardi’s claims and denied that she was misleading brands with her viewership numbers.
After months of whispering about his credibility, Azzopardi, who has known Mutesi for years, opened up about him in an interview on the So Dramatic podcast.
Social Blade statistics show Mutesi’s followers have jumped several thousand at once without explanation, which is extremely rare and usually indicates bot activity
The Sydney-based influencer, who describes herself as an ‘actor and bestselling award-winning writer’ on Instagram, said she works ‘hard’, and has a huge following because she’s been around for a long time.
‘Before moving to Australia, I worked as a fashion designer. I have traveled all over the world. I have articles in Nigeria. I sing too,’ Mutesi explained.
‘I’ve worked with international artists internationally, not just in Africa,’ he said.
Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Mutesi dismissed all of Azzopardi’s claims and denied that she was misleading brands with her viewership numbers.
‘It pains me to hear such words. These ridiculous claims are sad and pathetic and very childish,’ Mutesi said of Azopordi’s allegations.
Mutesi’s manager at Sydney PR agency Markson Sparks has also issued a statement denying the ‘fake socialite’ claims.
‘Suzanne stars in The Challenge, a major national reality show on Channel 10 and has had an amazing career over the past 12 years,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
‘ Suzanne starred alongside Jane Seymour in Ruby’s Choice earlier this year, she is the author of a second book due out in 2023. She is also a fashion influencer, model and is extremely popular on social media.
‘A huge fan of Suzanne, and I’m really proud to be her manager. Thank you for your recent enquiry. This is #fakenews.
While Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting Mutsee compulsorily pays for its followers, a report by HypAuditor suggests that only 45.25 per cent of its followers ‘look authentic’.
While Daily Mail Australia isn’t suggesting Mutesi (pictured in August) to its followers, a report by HypAuditor suggests only 45.25 per cent of its followers ‘look authentic’
Fake profiles often have usernames with strange combinations of numbers and letters. Many of Mutesi’s followers have usernames like this.
Most of Mutesi’s posts are filled with generic and poorly written comments from profiles that appear to be fake.
There have also been instances where duplicate comments have been left under the same post, which appears to have increased the engagement of the post.
Social Blade stats (pictured) show Suzanne has lost more than 14,460 followers in the last 30 days, which suggests she was affected by Instagram cracking down on bot accounts.
Mutesi moved to Australia for high school before obtaining a Bachelor of Design with a major in Fashion.
She has also branched out into fashion alongside her acting career, with minor roles in films such as 2022’s Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings.
Back in December, Mutesi denied claims that he edited his Instagram photos after watchdog account Celeb Spellcheck highlighted some questionable posts of his.
She has also branched out into fashion alongside her acting career, with minor roles in films such as 2022’s Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings.
In these photos, she appeared to clumsily edit herself into stock images of aircraft.
A photo posted by Mutesi in December 2020 shows him superimposed in front of a seaplane, with his hand barely touching the side of the plane due to sloppy editing.
But speaking to Daily Mail Australia at the time, Mutesi denied he had edited his images at all: ‘If it was [Photoshopped]I will have no problem owning it.
Back in December, Mutesi claimed watchdog account Celeb Spellcheck edited his Instagram photos after highlighting some of his questionable posts
Mutesi’s social media photos have been fiercely airbrushed
