Rock band Muse loses @muse Instagram handle to Meta’s new AI agent

The British rock band Muse, which has sold out arenas worldwide for more than two decades, is no longer @muse on Instagram Meta Platforms, Inc. ↗ 6.55%. The handle now belongs to Meta's newly unveiled AI agent of the same name, leaving the band relegated to @museband — a swap that has drawn widespread ridicule online.

A Handle Handover Shrouded in Mystery

Mark Zuckerberg formally introduced Muse, a personal AI agent designed to send emails, book trips, and make purchases on users' behalf, on Tuesday. Almost immediately, fans noticed the band's longtime Instagram handle had been reassigned. An archived version of the band's website confirms it held @muse as recently as last month. A similar change occurred on X, where the band now goes by @musetheband while Meta's AI claimed @muse.futurism+1

The exact circumstances remain unclear. According to IBTimes UK, Muse fans were already discussing the switch to @museband as early as June, roughly three months before Meta publicly launched its AI product. That timeline suggests the handle changed hands before the Muse AI launch, but neither Meta nor the band has explained whether the transfer was voluntary or compensated. Meta did not respond to a request for comment from Futurism about whether the handover was consensual.ibtimes+1

Fan Backlash and AI-Era Irony

The branding clash quickly became a flashpoint online. "That's genuinely the worst," one fan wrote on Reddit, while another declared, "Mark Zuckerberg is such a loser". Others seized on the irony of an AI company appropriating a name from human artists. "Wouldn't be like an A.I. company to take something and repurpose it as their own," one user quipped.futurism+1

Some fans accused the band of being "sellouts," speculating that Muse accepted a payout from Meta in exchange for the handles — though there is no evidence to support that claim.futurism

A Familiar Pattern

The episode echoes a precedent set on X in 2023, when Elon Musk's rebrand of Twitter stripped the @X handle from a user who had held it since 2007. That user was offered only merchandise and a headquarters visit in return. Muse, formed in Teignmouth, Devon in 1994, has won two Grammy Awards and sold more than 30 million albums, and released its tenth studio album in June 2026. For now, one of Britain's biggest rock acts sits behind a tech company's chatbot in the hierarchy of its own parent platform.ibtimes+1