僵尸粉 (literally 'zombie fans') are bot or dormant accounts that creators or brands buy to inflate follower counts on Weibo, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu. The metaphor is vivid: they look alive in the count but never like, comment, or buy. Platforms periodically run 清粉 (follower-cleanup) sweeps to delete them.
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Compare with 死粉 (dead fans, real but inactive followers), 真爱粉 (true fans, genuinely engaged), and 路人粉 (passerby fans, casual followers). Calling someone's followers 僵尸粉 is an accusation that their numbers are fake.
