Most people don’t think twice about a username. It’s just a login, a tag, a way to get online. But for me, Tonitunes isn’t just a name, it’s a piece of my marriage, my business, and my life. And that’s why I’m fighting for it, even against a giant like Meta.
🌱 How Tonitunes Was Born
This goes way back — AOL, Hotmail, the early days of the internet when you sat staring at the screen trying to come up with a handle. I couldn’t think of a thing. Jim, my husband, looked over at me and said, “Well, you love your tunes, Toni… why don’t you just use Tonitunes?”
Now my name is Tonya, but Jim has always called me Toni. In the beginning, he was the only one who used it, just his sweet little pet name for me. Over time, it caught on with others, but back then, it was something special, just between us. That makes the name Tonitunes feel a lot more like heart than happenstance.
From that day forward, everything I signed up for, email, forums, eBay (my first online selling space), I was Tonitunes. Over time it wasn’t just a handle anymore. It was me.
(And for anyone who remembers those early days of the net, yes, my Geocities homepage proudly showed my senior photo of me holding my baritone, and yes, my password was literally baritone for everything. Username: Tonitunes. Password: baritone. Basically an open invitation for hackers: SMH now, but that was the era!)
✨ From Nickname to Brand
Fast forward to today. Tonitunes is no longer just an online alias, it’s Designs by Tonitunes LLC. It’s my Etsy shop, my eBay storefront, my Shopify, my website (www.tonitunes.com). It’s on the packages I mail out and the stories I tell about the vintage treasures and crystals I sell.
A nickname from my husband turned into the name thousands of customers know me by.
⚔️ The Fight with Meta
Years ago, my original Instagram account was hacked and I lost @tonitunes. At the time, I had no trademark, no way to fight back. Later, someone else squatted on it.
Now, decades later, Tonitunes is a federally filed trademark with the USPTO. I’ve been using it in commerce since 1998. I filed a claim with Meta. They removed the impersonator, but instead of returning the handle to me, they locked it. Unavailable. Untouchable.
To make matters worse, they weren’t even going to remove the hacker at all until I followed up with a firm (but respectful) warning that legal action could follow if Meta knowingly allowed someone else to sit on a name tied to a protected trademark. Only then did they act.
Meanwhile, I had the exact same issue with Pinterest. My account there was hacked, too (and yes, just like everything else back then, my password there was literally baritone too, once they hacked one account, the others fell right into their hands). But when I contacted Pinterest with the same documentation, not only did they remove the unauthorized user, they restored my original handle to me. That meant I didn’t lose years of pins and board-building. Pinterest did it right.
Meta, on the other hand, locked the handle in limbo. Even after removing the impersonator, they made @tonitunes unavailable for anyone to use, including me.
On September 22, I sent Meta a certified packet with proof: IRS documents, USPTO filing, case numbers, screenshots across platforms. I gave them 10 business days to do the right thing. As of October 6, that deadline will have passed. If they don’t act, I’ll escalate formally with the USPTO and under the Lanham Act.
One last note for the hackers of the world: those early days taught me a lesson. I may have once used baritone for everything, but I’m a lot smarter now. My passwords today are strong, unique, and protected and I’ll never hand over the keys that easily again.
💡 Why It Matters
It’s not about vanity. It’s not about having my name “in lights.” It’s about protecting something I’ve built since 1998. It’s about showing that small businesses matter — that our names, our work, and our history deserve protection just as much as any corporation’s.
What started as Jim teasing me about loving my music has become the banner I’ve built my business under for over 25 years. That’s not “just a username.” That’s a legacy.
✊ To Other Small Business Owners
If you’ve ever felt like David against Goliath, I hope this story gives you courage. You have rights. You have tools. And persistence matters.
I’ll keep sharing updates not just for me, but for anyone else fighting to protect what they’ve built. Because at the end of the day, Tonitunes isn’t just a name. It’s my story. And that’s worth fighting for.