The technical tools to manage accounts were still scrappy—or nonexistent. One day that winter Scooter Braun sounded an alarm to Instagram: Bieber was locked out of his app. But Instagram didn’t have a reliable system for resetting passwords. They told Braun they could do it over the phone, but Bieber would need to verify his identity. “All right,” Braun said, “Justin’s going to call you guys.” Richardson picked up. “Hey, this is Justin,” he said. There were no security questions prepared, so that declaration would have to be enough proof of identity. She reset his password over the phone.
