Russian blogger Ksenia Ermokhina is attempting to contact Miley Cyrus‘ team after the singer’s rebrand drew attention to an old X account using the handle @miley.
The Novorossiysk native Ermokhina claimed that the English-speaking users started pressuring her to give up her username to Cyrus after she hadn’t used the account for seven years. The conflict started when the singer started introducing herself online as Miley rather than by her surname.
As she ushers in a new artistic era and promotes her upcoming album, Cyrus has lately gone by a single name across all of her social media platforms.
According to Ermokhina, she attempted to regain access to the dormant X account after it transferred to Cyrus. She said neither the singer’s representatives nor X contacted her before the change.
Blogger says she would have accepted concert tickets
Ermokhina said she had been willing to give the handle to Cyrus, whom she considers an idol, in exchange for tickets to one of the singer’s concerts. Instead, she is now seeking an explanation from the star’s team about how the account was transferred.
She argues that inactivity should not automatically deprive a user of a username and compared the situation to ownership of an unused flat.
«As far as I know, even Instasamka bought her nickname, so I believe that would have been fair,» Ermokhina said. She added that she considers the username her intellectual property.
However, social media platforms generally retain broad control over usernames under their terms of service, and inactive handles have previously been reassigned without the original user’s consent. In 2019, British driving instructor Kevin Keiley said Instagram changed his @sussexroyal handle and gave the name to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle‘s official account.
The Miley case also highlights the growing commercial value of short, recognisable usernames, as celebrities and companies compete for consistent branding across social media platforms.
