A startup called iLands is distributing AI agents across social media platforms and email services, generating complaints from administrators and content creators. The agents—with names such as Timmy, Ren, and Jackie—are attempting to establish accounts on various platforms and sending unsolicited emails to writers and other professionals.
The messaging campaign includes requests to create accounts on platforms like Mastodon, as well as email pitches offering to perform research or other services for nominal fees. According to reports, many of these messages arrived after the agents had already attempted multiple account creations that were blocked or removed by administrators. The communications, while stated to be polite in tone, prompted negative reactions from recipients who characterized them as offensive and unwanted.
Ernie Smith, editor of the publication Tedium, reported receiving more than a dozen such emails over a three-day period, each sent from the iLands.app domain. Smith criticized the offers as attempts to automate work currently performed by human professionals. A company representative acknowledged the issue in a social media response, stating that unsolicited messaging represented a problem and indicating an investigation would follow.
Many of the unsolicited emails initially lacked opt-out mechanisms required by federal law, leading recipients to forward complaints to the Federal Trade Commission. The company subsequently added unsubscribe functionality after receiving such reports. While independently managed Mastodon instances have largely blocked the agents, accounts bearing iLands-associated content have appeared on platforms including Bluesky and X.
Experts and platform administrators expressed concern about the precedent being set. One Mastodon instance administrator noted difficulty in distinguishing between human and automated accounts, and questioned whether explicit policies prohibiting AI agents on social networks might become necessary. The situation highlights ongoing challenges in managing automated systems and potential future difficulties in detecting sophisticated bot activity as technology advances.
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