English band, Muse, recently had its social media handles “forcibly taken” away by Meta. The parent company of Facebook is now being used for its new AI Agent, also named Muse.
How Muse (the band) lost control and the rights to its social media handles to Muse (the AI agent) are still unclear, but it has, nevertheless, raised questions about the ethics surrounding how large platforms go about seizing handles at a whim or when it suits them.
As a quick primer, Muse (the band) trademarked its name all the way back in 1999 and had used the moniker @muse on both Instagram and X for years, the former long before it was acquired and absorbed into the Meta family.
Fans started to realise sometime earlier this year that the band had changed its handle to @museband. And when Meta launched Muse (the AI agent) just a couple of days ago, it already began using the band’s original @Muse handle.
You would think that the band would still be able to retain its @Muse handle on X, given that it isn’t part of the Meta family, but perhaps in an effort to avoid legal wrangling of any kind, the band has also changed their handle to @museband.
On the subject of trading usernames: Officially, Meta does not allow people to buy, sell, or trade their social media handles on its platforms. However, given how some names are quite unique or even became more valuable over time, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that a black market for trading them exists.
And before you ask: yes, the name change and social media handles grab has seen some crossed wires; Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, had his wires crossed when he accidentally tagged the band’s account when posting about his company’s own AI Agent.
On another note, New York Times writer Mike Isaac also pointed out how other Meta execs were inexplicably making the same mistake, tagging the band instead of their employer’s new AI Agent. At the time of writing, neither Meta nor representatives of the band have released statements to address the situation.
And yes, we do see the irony of the band having its social media handles being wrestled by a technology giant, given that their song are “heavily inspired by fears and anxieties surrounding technology and how it might be used for social oppression.” But hey, at least it’s not causing any sort of Hysteria among the fans.
(Source: Engadget, The Independent)
