Instagram ‘sorry’ after Andres Iniesta username mix-up

Instagram has confirmed to Gizmodo what happened, but did not say it stole the account to hand it over to the Spanish football player.

Andres Iniesta is a household name in the world of football – but it’s also the name of a father from Madrid who, in his own words, “likes to take pictures of his kids, yummy food and interesting buildings”.

He signed off his original post by writing: “It’s clear that my account has been “stolen”, but I don’t imagine Iniesta the player being behind this himself”. Instead, the company labeled the whole thing as a mistake. “I usually share them on Instagram with friends and family”. “The reason was that I “infringed the Terms of Use”.

Iniesta, the designer, said he made several attempts to contact Instagram, via Twitter and through its Facebook contact form, but he received no response. “A couple of days later, he realized that the other Andrés Iniesta had taken over his account, without any explanation or response to his queries from Instagram”.

Andres Iniesta said his account on the photo-sharing network had been deactivated unexpectedly.

Iniesta said he didn’t think too much of it and went on enjoying his vacation, but then, his friends noticed they were being followed by a different Andres Iniesta: the soccer star and FC Barcelona captain. He has more than five million followers on Instagram.

After the switch got some attention, trivial plebian Iniesta wrote an update saying that his account has been restored to him, without any apology or detail from Instagram, and that hero Iniesta’s agents have denied any responsibility.