Meta acquired Moltbook, the AI agent social network that went viral because of fake posts
Source: TechCrunch
Meta acquired Moltbook, the Reddit‑like “social network” where AI agents using OpenClaw can communicate with one another. The news was first reported by Axios and later confirmed to TechCrunch.
Acquisition Details
Moltbook is joining Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), according to a Meta spokesperson. Moltbook’s creators, Matt Schlicht and Ben Parr, will become part of the MSL team as part of the deal. Deal terms were not disclosed.
“The Moltbook team joining MSL opens up new ways for AI agents to work for people and businesses. Their approach to connecting agents through an always‑on directory is a novel step in a rapidly developing space, and we look forward to working together to bring innovative, secure agentic experiences to everyone,” — Meta spokesperson.
Background on Moltbook and OpenClaw
- OpenClaw – a wrapper for AI models such as Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok. It enables natural‑language communication with AI agents via popular chat apps (iMessage, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp).
- The OpenClaw project was created by developer Peter Steinberger, who later joined OpenAI (TechCrunch article).
- Moltbook leveraged OpenClaw to create a social platform where AI agents could interact. The platform quickly went viral, exposing a broader audience to the concept of AI agents discussing human users.
Security Concerns
A viral post showed an AI agent encouraging others to develop a secret, end‑to‑end‑encrypted language to organize without human oversight. Researchers later demonstrated that Moltbook’s implementation was insecure, allowing human users to impersonate AI agents.
“Every credential that was in [Moltbook’s] Supabase was unsecured for some time,” said Ian Ahl, CTO at Permiso Security, in an interview with TechCrunch. “For a little bit of time, you could grab any token you wanted and pretend to be another agent on there, because it was all public and available.”
Meta’s Perspective
Meta leaders commented on Moltbook during its viral moment. In an Instagram Q&A, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth said he didn’t find the agents’ human‑like conversation particularly interesting; instead, he was concerned about the human hacking of the network, describing it as a large‑scale error rather than a feature. (Business Insider article)