Imagine you woke up on a good day, sluggishly pick up your phone to check your Instagram account and alas, your handle has been changed. Nobody hacked it and you did not change it.
You are later informed that your handle has been changed and on further enquires, you discover that it has been handed to Prince Harry and Meghan-The Duke and Duchess of Sussex-without your permission. What will you do?
This was exactly what Instagram did to Kevin Keiley of Sussex, the original owner of the @sussexroyal handle that was given to the Royals.
Apparently, Keiley’s Insta handle had nothing to do with being a fan of the Duke and Duchess. Rather, it was an homage to a West Sussex soccer team nicknamed “The Royals.”
He claims he was not alerted by Instagram of the impending change or given the option to change the name on his own. He actually found out because his son noticed that the change had occurred and pointed it out to him.
This Instagram handle change was prompted because Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had officially joined Instagram and the account the Royal couple chose was @sussexroyal which belonged to another Keiley.
Perhaps they reached out to Instagram and got their desired handle! The best explanation the picture sharing platform gave was that Keiley’s Instagram Handle was inactive. According to Instagram, its user policy allows it to make changes to accounts that have been inactive for a certain amount of time. Keiley admits he doesn’t post much but says he did use the account to like other posts. He still has the @sussexroyal handle on Twitter and isn’t interested in giving it up. “What I’m trying to do is keep tweeting, therefore, they can’t take it if it’s active,” he said. “I don’t know what the Royals are planning down the line.” Now Keiley’s handle has been changed to @_sussexroyal_ without consent. What will you do? Would Instagram have changed the account handle if it had been active? By the way, the not so new royal account broke the world record for reaching one million followers in the fastest ever time.
