Facebook finally gets a new name: Meta.
On Thursday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement that the name has been changed. He said that he hopes that Facebook will be viewed as a "metaverse company" in the future.
Zuckerberg stated, "Right now our brand is so closely linked to one product it cannot possibly represent all that we're doing right now let alone the future."
He stated that he was creating a "new brand" for the company, which will include everything it does from Instagram to Facebook and WhatsApp. He said that you don't need to be a Facebook user to access the rest of its products under this new company brand.
This is the Meta logo, which was unveiled at Facebook's headquarters following the announcement of the name change. Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Zuckerberg stated, "Now we have the new north star to bring the metaverse alive." "And we have a brand new name to reflect the breadth of our work and the future we are building."
Connect was mostly a push for virtual and augmented reality, with the name change taking up only a few minutes. During the event, Zuckerberg repeatedly stated that AR and VR visions would not be possible for many more years.
This leak comes at a very difficult time for the company. Frances Haugen, a Facebook whistleblower, leaked internal documents to The Wall Street Journal. This led to a series of shocking reports known as The Facebook Files. We learned from the leaked documents that Facebook refused sharing internal studies that showed that the social network was harmful to young people's health.
Haugen testified before the Senate. The shutdown of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp for almost six hours occurred later that week. The Facebook Papers, a set of leaked documents that were leaked to the media, have been extensively covered in the media.
The Real Facebook Oversight Board (a group that works to hold Facebook responsible for its impact on society) called the Facebook name change meaningless.
The Real Facebook Oversight Board stated in a statement that "Changing the name doesn’t change reality: Facebook destroys our democracy and is the leading peddler for disinformation and hatred,"
Facebook or Meta might need to do more than just a rebrand in order to regain trust.
