The Norwegian royal house is having its annus horribilis - a lung transplant for Crown Princess Mette-Marit due to worsening fibrosis, a health scare for Queen Sonja, a four-year prison sentence for Marius Borg. And in the middle of all that, a new little scandal that says more about our era than about the monarchy itself: someone stole the identity of the young Sverre Magnus.

The third in line to the throne had supposedly opened his own Instagram profile. Or at least that's what the impostors pretending to be him wanted people to believe - with a verified profile that gathered over 13,000 followers in just two weeks. The profile's two posts were carefully chosen: a visit to a mining museum in May and a photo from the World Cup, from the match in which Norway knocked Brazil out 2:1.

But one small detail gave the scam away. The only profile the account follows is - Erling Haaland. Not the royal house, not state institutions, but the Manchester City footballer. For a real member of a royal family, that would be odd; for someone trying to look like a teenage fan, perfectly logical.

The palace reacted quickly: "This is a fake account. We've already reported it to Meta and expect the profile to be deleted soon," confirmed a communications adviser for the Norwegian court. This is no longer just an awkward situation - it's a criminal offense, because someone is pretending to be King Harald's grandson. And the question left hanging over all of us, not just the crown: if a verified profile with 13,000 followers can be created in two weeks under someone else's name, how much are those blue checkmarks worth at all?