The Biebs..
… Is…
… BACK!!!!!
About two weeks after he quit Instagram in a huff over his love life (both past and present), Justin Bieber surprised fans over the weekend when he reactivated his account.
The singer didn’t make any grand pronouncement upon doing so.
He didn’t reference the social media hiatus, either.
He simply included two new videos and one new picture of himself and his dog, Todd, and carried on like everything was normal.
Prior to sharing the above photo of his adorable puppy, Bieber’s last picture had been the one featured below, which depicts Bieber and new girlfriend Sofia Richie during their trip to Tokyo.
It was among the many photos that got Justin in unexpected trouble earlier this month.
Because it was that trip to Japan which stirred up a serious mess for Bieber.
First, he and Richie confirmed themselves as a couple by posing for a number of cute and cozy images.
Then, Richie started to receive death threats and very mean insults online, prompting Bieber to tell his followers to cut it out, lest he make his Instagram account private.
“I’m gonna make my Instagram private if you guys don’t stop the hate this is getting out of hand,” Bieber captioned a photo at the time of himself with Richie, adding:
“If you guys are really fans you wouldn’t be so mean to people that I like.”
This led to an unexpected comment from Selena Gomez, who took her ex-boyfriend to task.
She said Bieber should only blame himself because he’s the one who made his relationship public and that he should also only be grateful to his fan base for their support.
“If you can’t handle the hate then stop posting pictures of your girlfriend lol – it should be special between you two only,” Selena allegedly wrote.
She supposedly added: “Don’t be mad at your fans. They love you.”
Some outlets then claimed that Bieber shot back at Gomez, with accusations of infidelity flying between the exes…
… although other outlets claimed all subsequent comments were edited into existence and that only Selena’s original critique of Justin was legitimate.
Either way, annoyed at all the controversy when all he wanted to do was express joy and pride over his new girlfriend, Bieber left Instagram.
And Twitter threw a party in response:
Bieber basically fell off the map afterward, not attending the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday night and not commenting on anything.
Not on Selena. Not on Sofia. Not on Mariah Carey’s sister getting arrested for prostitution.
But anxious fans who were checking his Instagram account every few minutes since his departure finally received the news they had been looking for early on Monday morning.
During his down time, Bieber’s follower count dropped from 80 million to 77.8 million.
It wouldn’t surprise us if some of his fans stayed away, afraid of once again getting burned by Bieber’s whims.
But others are clearly excited to have him back in their social media lives.
Take @Eleanorauhl13, for instance, who just Tweeted: “#JustinReactivatedParty now this is one I’m attending!”
And @ThaBieberCrew clearly agrees, writing in response to Bieber’s Instagram return: “THE KING IS BACK.”
Referring to Bieber’s dog, @purposehoIy added: “we’re getting new pics of Todd soon it’s LIT.”
And @hairspraybieber said what we’re all thinking: “I’m just happy I can see his hot shirtless selfies again.”
It’s safe to assume quite a few of those photos are on the way.
Unless Bieber does try a different Instagram approach going forward.
Might he be hesitant to let followers inside his life too much, after all that transpired a few weeks ago?
In the end, all Bieber did was share a few pictures of himself and his latest love interest. That’s par for the social media course, really.
And yet the world went pretty much bananas in response.
Would anyone really blame Bieber if he scaled back a little bit going forward?
We certainly wouldn’t.
We just hope that scaling back does not include fewer photos of Todd.
Because look at that little fuzzball! He’s even cuter than his owner!