Instagram disabled user with @metaverse handle post-Facebook rebrand

Facebook pressed the big red button inside of Mark Zuckerberg's offices a few weeks ago, right in front of Zuck's duct-tape-covered front-facing webcam (screw your privacy, not his) when it rebranded itself amid non-stop chaos to Meta.

The rebranding to Meta saw the Facebook-owned Instagram blocking the account of the user with the handle @metaverse, out of nowhere and with no explanation. The owner of the @metaverse handle on Instagram is Australian artist Thea-Mai Baumann, who had her Instagram account banned once Meta stepped into the world.

Baumann told The New York Times after her @metaverse account on Instagram was snuffed: "This account is a decade of my life and work. I didn't want my contribution to the metaverse to be wiped from the internet. That happens to women in tech, to women of color in tech, all the time".

But don't worry, Meta just needed a week or two because on December 2 it took the force of The New York Times to contact Meta to ask why Baumann's account was blocked... and then with a flick of Meta's real fingers, Baumann's @metaverse account was restored. The reason? Oh it was "incorrectly removed for impersonation" and they're "sorry this error occurred".

Right.