Facebook could not secure @Meta handle on Instagram – a motorbike magazine beat them

Facebook employees unveil a new logo and the name 'Meta' on the sign in front of Facebook headquarters on Oct 28, 2021 in Menlo Park, California. — TNS

Facebook announced Oct 28 its corporate name changed to Meta, but it won’t be called that on Instagram – a social media platform it owns.

Instead, Meta will be known as @WeAreMeta on Instagram. Another company already owns the Instagram rights to Meta – a Denver motorcycle magazine that has had the @meta handle for seven years.

“Since 2014,” the magazine said in an Instagram post after Facebook announced its rebranding.

Officially called “META”, the magazine tells stories “about motorcycles, the places they take us and the people who ride them”. It boasts 72,000 followers on Instagram, and its followers were elated it managed to stick with its handle after Thursday.

Some congratulated the magazine on a potential big payday if the social media giant wants to stake claim at the @meta handle. Others voiced their support for META over the new Facebook name.

“The only Meta I can get behind,” one Instagram user said.

“The one and only Meta,” another user said.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced Meta on Thursday as a way to bring the company’s apps and technologies under one brand. Meta – and what the company is referring to as the metaverse – includes Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp and more.

“Our hope is that within the next decade, the metaverse will reach a billion people, host hundreds of billions of dollars of digital commerce, and support jobs for millions of creators and developers,” Zuckerberg said Thursday. – The Charlotte Observer/Tribune News Service