Heavy! Manus officially announced its independence from Meta. Can it really return to its original form?

Zhidongxi Author | Chen Junda Editor | Xinyuan Zhidongzhi reported on August 12 that today, Manus released a "Letter to Manus Users", announcing that it will resume operations as an independent company and continue to provide services to millions of users around the world. As part of the restoration of independent operations and compliance with regulatory requirements in specific jurisdictions, some user data generated on or after the date of Meta's acquisition on December 29, 2025, will be deleted in late August. This user letter officially confirmed the separation of Manus and Meta. This multi-billion-dollar deal, which once caused a sensation in the global AI community, came to an end seven and a half months after the official announcement. ▲Data disposal arrangements disclosed in the Manus user letter The key arrangement disclosed in the user letter is: the data generated by affected users on or after the day of Meta’s acquisition (December 29, 2025) will be deleted from August 23 to 24, 2026 (Singapore time). Manus has launched a dedicated data backup and recovery tool. The backup window is now open and will close on August 23. Affected users can back up first and restore data and use it normally from August 25. During this period, it is expected that they will be unable to access their accounts for two days. Unaffected users can continue to use it as usual without any action. As compensation, Manus will not charge affected users during the backup period, and will also issue a "return reward" after the data is restored. Regarding "why only the data after the acquisition was affected", Manus responded: This is part of its separation from Meta and compliance with regulatory requirements in specific jurisdictions, and is not a data leak or security incident. After becoming an independent company, user data will be stored in the United States and Singapore. It should be noted that as of today, Manus is still not available in mainland China, and this data disposal mainly affects overseas users. ▲Manus is still unavailable in mainland China. Manus’s experience in the past seven and a half months has been full of ups and downs. On December 30, 2025, Beijing time, Meta officially announced the acquisition of Butterfly Effect, the parent company of Manus, the popular general agent product. According to later reports, this payment