The Brief: Some social media handles and accounts are for sale online.


Rare, coveted, brandable, and/or popular social media accounts and handles are often called OG Handles. They are available for sale online for up to tens of thousands of dollars. The sale of accounts violates Twitter and Instagram‘s terms of service but is not illegal.

“Username squatting,” or making an inactive account solely for the purpose of reserving a username, is not allowed on Twitter or Instagram. People typically username squat so that they can sell a username or prevent someone else from using that name.

Websites offering to sell social media handles for a lot of money may be illegitimate scam sites, especially since selling usernames is technically not allowed.

Some “dead” handles, which the original creator has neglected for a number of years can be reclaimed through various means, but it is rare to be able to do so legitimately through Twitter or Instagram.