She Got Stripped Out Of Her Identity. Luckily, She Found A Back-Up
Thea-Mai Baumann, an Australian artist & senior manager at the Australian Arts Council, had just turned 9 years since she first started her own Instagram account. The handle? @Metaverse.
An avid technologist herself, she found the concept of augmented reality fascinating early on — so much so as to kickstart her own company called Metaverse Makeovers. An app that showed holograms popping from the nails of her customers. She ran this project until 2017 — alternating between her art career & the project when she suddenly ran out of investment capital.
Nevertheless, at a time when Snapchat & Instagram filters weren’t even a thing, she witnessed the potential this intricate technology showed for the future. Little did she know, this very concept was the one Facebook would dedicate time to later in the future.
On October 28th, 2021, Facebook announced it was changing its name to Meta — inspired by their new focus on the metaverse, a virtual world they judge as to the future of the Internet.
Now, as soon as the news broke out anyone would read the announcement, and jump out of their seat thinking they are sitting on prime digital real estate. And well… that should be the case. After all, as a normal user, if you want the rights to her handle, you’d have to offer to purchase it dead on. Unfortunately, Thea happened to mess with Big Brother.
Fast-forward to November 2nd, with fewer than 1000 followers under her name, Thea wakes up to a disabled account. She tries to log into her Instagram account, only to be greeted with a shocking message that reads: “Your account has been blocked for pretending to be someone else.”
Baffled & confused, she tries to verify her now apparent ‘false’ identity with Instagram — but to no avail. Weeks go by, with no response, and she suddenly thinks about that warning she got from that random stranger a few days ago: “FB isn’t gonna buy it, they’re gonna take it.”
Imagine you were an established influencer with a considerable following. And suddenly, you got stripped out of your own account, with no right or access to your posts whatsoever. Or even worse… no direct way to confirm the account is actually yours. A full decade of life’s work… thrown into the trash can.
Just because you fall under the ruling of Big Tech, and have no true way to validate your digital identity. Unless… you made a backup.
Call it coincidence or not, right around the time Facebook changed its name to Meta, Thea minted her first posts into NFTs on Clout.art — creating a clear record of her ownership on the blockchain. Fortunately, she didn’t have to use it.
One month after the shutdown, The New York Times reached out to Meta to learn more about the incident — and the Instagram spokesman was quick to apologize, saying: “the account had been incorrectly removed for impersonation” and it would be restored shortly. Two days later, exactly that happened.
Ms. Baumann was able to claim back her identity — and not remain with the short end of the stick. Which is a great thing to hear. But even though this story did have a happy ending, we encourage you to give it a second thought.
When you’re under the scope of Big Tech, you have to play by their rules — which are mostly fabricated at their own whim. Yes, in the case of Thea, she was able to claim her intellectual property back, but at the expense of a sour taste in the mouth.
We live in a system in which our data or identity can get shut down & canceled — seemingly out of nowhere. When you’re a creator, and your main income stream relies on your online presence, you can’t afford to lose it for anything. You need a way to attest to your ownership.
Thea recognized this back in October, and that’s why she agreed to become a featured creator for Clout.art & went about minting her very first NFTs — which will sell at auction on December 21st.
Note: Proceeds from the auction will go to Punk Fund for funding & liberating artists by educating them on NFTs and it’s monetisation opportunities
She now has a clear way to not only monetize her account — but to validate the ownership of her digital asset. Removing all tampering out of the equation.
This is what Clout.art makes possible for online creators. Provide a secure way to turn your most successful media posts into unique NFTs. Decentralized & incorruptible.
Make sure to join our community to get notified when Thea’s NFTs go live at auction. You will not want to miss it!
