Name game? Artist's Instagram account, @metaverse, blocked after Meta rebranding

It is often heard that the stronger party usually gets its own way and it is the smaller organisations that have to suffer. Something similar happened in the case of an artist who lost her voice in front of the social media giant Meta, earlier known as Facebook.

Almost a month ago, Mark Zuckerberg announced that he is changing the umbrella corporate name of his social media platforms to Meta. A few days after that announcement, Thea-Mai Baumann, an Australian artist and technologist, found out that her Instagram account has been blocked.

Reason? Same name.

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As per a report first published by the New York Times, when the Australian artist tried accessing her Instagram account on November 02, she got a message saying, "Your account has been blocked for pretending to be someone else".

Her account was named '@metaverse' and she had created the profile in 2012. The artist used this account to share her experiences and document her journey as an arts student in Brisbane, and then the making of her AR company named Metaverse Makeovers.

"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," Baumann told the New York Times.

Baumann created Metaverse Nails which is reportedly the sole product in the world that allows "you to adorn your digital and physical self with customisable holograms," as per their official website.

However, Instagram claims that her account had been "incorrectly removed for impersonation" and was therefore restored two days later. However, the Australian artist is worried that the future of her company is in danger, now that Zuckerberg is competing with her in the name game.

She says she is worried that its culture could be "corrupted by the kind of Silicon Valley tech bros who I feel lack vision and integrity", she said.