Instagram apologizes for taking man’s account and giving it to soccer star
A rep for the photo-sharing service gave Andrés Iniesta, who shares a name with the captain of Barcelona’s soccer team, an apology for lacking communication.
A man who shares a name with a famous soccer player exposed a major flaw in Instagram’s efforts to make sure impersonators aren’t using its service.
Andrés Iniesta’s Instagram account was suspended because the platform’s reps thought he was impersonating a footballer with the same name, the captain of one of the world’s most popular soccer teams, Barcelona. He wasn’t, of course. He was posting pics of “kids, yummy food and interesting buildings in Madrid.”
The non-football playing Iniesta took to Medium (and Reddit) to tell his story.
The original post was published July 19 after Iniesta’s several attempts to contact the service. Instagram quickly restored the account five hours after the Medium post was published and as the Reddit post picked up traction (it quickly moved to the top spot on the site’s front page).
The player’s agency also contacted Iniesta to assure him it had nothing to do with it.
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