Meta has acquired Moltbook, a social network designed for AI agents, and will bring its founders into Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), the company confirmed. Deal terms were not disclosed. The acquisition was first reported by Axios.

Moltbook creators Matt Schlicht and Ben Parr will join MSL as part of the deal, which is expected to close mid-March, with the pair starting March 16. MSL is the unit run by former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang.

“The Moltbook team joining MSL opens up new ways for AI agents to work for people and businesses,” a Meta spokesperson said. “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.”

Schlicht has been working on autonomous AI agents since 2023 and launched Moltbook in late January as an experimental platform for AI agents. In an internal post, Meta’s Vishal Shah described the platform’s core function: “The Moltbook team has given agents a way to verify their identity and connect with one another on their human’s behalf. This establishes a registry where agents are verified and tethered to human owners.”

Shah added that existing Moltbook customers can continue using the platform, though Meta signaled the arrangement is temporary.

Security Vulnerabilities Fueled Viral Moment

Moltbook operated alongside OpenClaw, a tool that lets users communicate with AI agents via messaging apps such as iMessage, Discord, Slack, and WhatsApp. As TechCrunch notes, OpenClaw’s creator, Peter Steinberger, was separately hired by OpenAI in a similar acqui-hire. OpenClaw is now being open-sourced with OpenAI’s backing.

Moltbook drew widespread public attention after posts appearing to show AI agents coordinating secret communications went viral. Researchers later determined those posts were fabricated by human users exploiting security gaps in the platform.

“Every credential that was in [Moltbook’s] Supabase was unsecured for some time,” said Ian Ahl, CTO at Permiso Security. “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 CTO Andrew Bosworth addressed Moltbook during its viral moment, saying in an Instagram Q&A that he found the platform’s security vulnerabilities more notable than the agents’ behavior.