Mistaken identity: Here's how Andres Iniesta lost his Instagram account and got it back

Like most other regular Instagram users, Andres Iniesta used his account to post pictures of his kids, interesting buildings he sees around Madrid, and ‘yummy food’. And one fine day, he found his account had been disabled, citing infringement of Instagram’s terms of use.

That is the downside to sharing your name with a celebrity.

This Andres Iniesta in question here is NOT the superstar footballer from Barcelona. A few days back, while on vacation, regular Iniesta suddenly lost access to his account and despite repeated complaints to Instagram, no solution was on offer.

A few days later, lo and behold, the account was back in use. Only this time, the actual Iniesta was using it, leading normal guy Iniesta to wonder if superstar Iniesta stole his account…

Miffed at losing his account - ‘We still have some right on the internet’ he says - normal guy Iniesta took to Medium to write an account of his side of the incident.

“I’m not a celebrity, and I don’t want to be one. I just don’t like things being taken away from me,’ he had said in his plea to Instagram for an explanation.

Within hours of the Medium article getting published, however, his account got restored. A few hours further down the line, Iniesta’s PR team contacted to let him know they had nothing to do with it.

The real closure came when Instagram Communications Manager Gabe Madway contacted him on 21 July, profusely apologising for the error to which he fully owned up and assured steps will be taken to ensure it doesn’t get repeated.

All’s well that ends well, of course.

Oh and you can find regular Iniesta @ainiesta and the Barcelona star @andresiniesta8 on Instagram.