[FDSGSG]

Just my personal observation. I earned around half a million dollars by running an "autoclaimer" that would automatically register Instagram names as they'd become available. I'd regularly see Instagram employees grabbing names from my portfolio for themselves.

[vanusa]

If you could post before / after screenshots showing proof of this theft somewhere - along with the real-world names of these employees -- that might get a lot of eyeballs.

[pshc]

I can understand the company pulling usernames from an automated name squatter... but I wonder if this happens to fully established accounts too?

[FDSGSG]

Well, I tracked the previous UIDs and saw a lot of names that weren't squatted getting released and shortly after ending up with Instagram employees.

E: Oh yeah, there was also the whole "trademarking" thing that was used to steal generic names from active accounts using obviously invalid trademarks. https://www.vice.com/en/article/zma3w4/scammers-fake-tradema...

[Rastonbury]

How do valuable usernames 'become available'? Like the person deletes their account?

[FDSGSG]

People deleting their accounts, or trying to sell their usernames and messing up the transfer.

[Inityx]

Wow that's a shitty thing to do

[FDSGSG]

Meh, it's their site. It's just weird that they don't seem to have any controls around this.

[edm0nd]

Dont hate the player, hate the game.

[stunt]

This is not kind of game that they're forced to play. So hate both.