- Meta launches Muse personal AI agent – and seemingly takes social media accounts too
- British rock icons Muse seemingly shifted to @Museband
- However changeover seems not to apply to older tweets
After Meta recently launched Muse, its new “personal AI agent”, the company has apparently already run into difficulties securing the social media handles for its new project.
Both the Instagram and Threads handle for @Muse previously belonged to iconic British rock trio Muse, but now appear to be under the control of Meta.
The former has apparently been shunted out to @Museband, despite having been around a lot longer than Meta’s latest misguided AI boondoggle – with the move alarming fans and industry observers around the world.
One of Britain’s most successful rock exports, Muse (the band) trademarked its name in 1999, and had used the @muse account on Instagram and on X for many years.
However The Independent noticed that in July 2026, this changed, with Meta’s platform taking over on both websites. This has caused some unfortunate cross-referencing for some user’s tweets, causing Meta executives (including Mark Zuckerberg himself) to apparently hail the performance of @Museband as “the best AI agent I’ve tried”.
Muse are well known for their dramatic performances and musical innovation, but the band has also hit out against the creeping influence of technology in the modern world, including how it might be used for government surveillance or warfare purposes.
Neither the band or Meta have responded to press inquiries, and all accounts seem to still be in place.
Of course, there might only be a limited number of words and names available for new projects and products, especially with terms as historic and iconic as Muse (which dates back to Ancient Greece), but Meta’s move does raise concerns about the ability of powerful organizations to dominate and commandeer entities such as usernames.
Engadget points out that the @Meta Instagram handle had been used by an independent motorcycle magazine of the same name since 20214, before Zuckerberg’s company acquired it, forcing the former to change its name. And when Meta launched its Threads network in 2023, the @threads handle on Instagram quietly changed from a small fashion retailer called American Threads to Meta’s control a month later.
If Meta is able to kick off one of the most famous bands of the last few decades in favor of what will likely be a short-lived misadventure, where will it all end?
