Facebook has officially gotten a face-lift.
After rumors of rebrand began surfacing, the company has announced that it has officially changed its corporate name to “Meta.”
Announcing @Meta — the Facebook company’s new name. Meta is helping to build the metaverse, a place where we’ll play and connect in 3D. Welcome to the next chapter of social connection. pic.twitter.com/ywSJPLsCoD
— Meta (@Meta) October 28, 2021
The Washington Post is reporting that the company’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, made the announcement at the annual Connect conference, where Facebook normally announces the release of physical products such as the Oculus.
Zuckerberg claimed the renaming of the corporate entity to Meta signified its move into the so-called “meta-verse,” with a focus on virtual reality and complementary hardware.
“From now on, we’re going to be the metaverse first. Not Facebook first,” Zuckerberg said, according to the outlet. “Facebook is one of the most used products in the world. But increasingly, it doesn’t encompass everything that we do. Right now, our brand is so tightly linked to one product that it can’t possibly represent everything we are doing.”
Other sources, however, claim that this move is an attempt by Zuckerberg and company to distance itself from the so-called “Facebook Papers,” wherein a whistleblower came forward in an infamous “60 Minutes” interview to disclose that the company was aware of the harm it was causing on a macro scale — including increased political polarization in countries, widespread distribution of misinformation, and the fomenting of extremist groups that ultimately culminated in the Jan. 6 insurrection on the nation’s capital — but did nothing to stop it all.
The company, for its part, categorically denied the claims, and called the Facebook papers “a coordinated effort to selectively use leaked documents to paint a false picture of our company.”
For what it’s worth, though, social media isn’t buying Zuckerberg and the company’s explanation of the rebrand.
“Comcast rebranded to Xfinity, and we still call it Comcast. Google rebranded to Alphabet, and we still call it Google. It’s f–king Facebook and we still hate it,” wrote one user.