Meta's New AI Agent Muse Appears to Take Over @Muse Handles From British Rock Band
Meta's newly launched personal AI agent Muse appears to have taken control of the @Muse accounts on Instagram and Threads long held by the British rock band Muse, which has reportedly shifted to @Museband.
The change was noticed in July 2026, according to The Independent, which TechRadar cites. Muse, one of Britain's most successful rock exports, trademarked its name in 1999 and had used the @muse handle on Instagram and on X for many years before the switch. The band's earlier posts do not appear to have moved with the name, leaving some older tweets and their replies pointing at an account that now belongs to Meta's AI project.
That crossover produced an awkward result. Meta executives, including Mark Zuckerberg, have apparently hailed the performance of @Museband as "the best AI agent I've tried," according to the TechRadar account, directing praise at a handle that until recently identified a rock band.
Neither Muse nor Meta responded to press inquiries, and all accounts involved appear to still be in place.
The episode follows earlier handle transfers involving Meta. Engadget points out that the @Meta Instagram handle had been used by an independent motorcycle magazine of the same name before Zuckerberg's company acquired it, forcing the publication to change its name. When Meta launched its Threads network in 2023, the @threads handle on Instagram quietly passed from a small fashion retailer called American Threads to Meta's control a month later.
Muse is known for elaborate stage productions and musical experimentation, but the band has also publicly criticised the growing influence of technology in modern life, including its potential use for government surveillance and warfare. Its members have not commented on the handle change.
TechRadar notes that the pool of available names and words is finite, particularly for a term as old and widely used as Muse, which dates back to Ancient Greece. Even so, the report says the transfer raises questions about how far large technology companies can go in taking over usernames and identities already established by others.
Editor's Summary
Meta's new personal AI agent Muse appears to have taken over the @Muse handles on Instagram and Threads from the British rock band of the same name, which has been shifted to @Museband. Neither the band nor Meta has responded to press inquiries, and the change has left some older posts referencing the wrong account. The transfer echoes earlier cases in which Meta acquired usernames already in use by smaller organisations, adding to questions about how platform owners claim established online identities.