V Festival 2016: Justin Bieber will still play festival despite quitting Instagram

The Canadian singer had 77.8 million followers, but has now deleted or suspended his account.

The disappearing act sparked mass online rumours he may cancel his headline slot at this weekend's V Festival, but this is something the festival has strongly denied.

Bieber's vanishing act comes after he threatened to make his Instagram private, which led to a war of words with pop star Gomez, aged 24. The 22 year old shared a series of photos of himself with alleged girlfriend Sofia Richie, 17. But when fans posted negative messages, he wrote: "I'm gonna make my Instagram private if you guys don't stop the hate this is getting out of hand, if you guys are really fans you wouldn't be so mean to people that I like."

Comments from Gomez included: "If you can't handle the hate then stop posting pictures of your girlfriend lol – it should be special between you two only.

"Don't be mad at your fans. They love you."

Bieber then put out screen grabs showing him saying: "It's funny to see people that used me for attention and still try to point the finger this way. Sad. All love."

Gomez appeared to regret her comments. She shared a Snapchat post with the words: "What I said was selfish and pointless."