Facebook Officially Changes Company Name to… Meta
MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 28: A sign with a new logo and the name ‘Meta’ is displayed in front of Facebook headquarters on October 28, 2021 in Menlo Park, California. A new name and logo were unveiled at Facebook headquaters after a much-anticipated name change for the social media platform. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
“The company name is Meta.”
“In what way?”
“No, that’s the name!”
“What is?”
“Meta.”
“How?”
“Listen, the name is Meta.”
“You still haven’t told me what’s Meta about it!!!”
(Apologies to Abbott and Costello.)
Facebook is under a whirlwind of controversy, so they are going with a company-wide rebrand.
And the new name they have settled on is…
Meta.
Yes, Meta. It’s derived from Mark Zuckerberg’s goal of going all in on the “metaverse.”
What is the metaverse? Well, as Zuckerberg himself explained, “We’ve gone from desktop to web to phones, from text to photos to video, but this isn’t the end of the line. The next platform and medium will be even more immersive and embodied internet where you’re in the experience, not just looking at it, and we call this the metaverse.”
The Facebook CEO showed some previews of the metaverse and how it would help “connecting with people.”
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg explains his “Metaverse” virtual world concept, which he says is about “connecting with people.” pic.twitter.com/24YZk5ag5J
— The Recount (@therecount) October 28, 2021
To be clear, the Facebook platform will still be called Facebook. Meta is the rebranding they are giving to the company at large.
The news comes amid massive scrutiny on the social media giant over recent stunning reports, revelations from whistleblower Frances Haugen, and a trove of leaked documents, all revealing details from internal worries about election misinformation to Zuckerberg allegedly agreeing with a Vietnamese government demand to censor dissidents on the platform.
So the “Meta” rebrand received a lot of mockery and skepticism, even from Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey:
meta: referring to itself or to the conventions of its genre; self-referential.
— jack⚡️ (@jack) October 28, 2021
#BREAK Facebook's new company name is Meta
It still has all the same problems it had this morning. pic.twitter.com/3AROaibCeU
— Donie O'Sullivan (@donie) October 28, 2021
build back meta
— Rachel Cohen (@rmc031) October 28, 2021
They’ve ruined the real world now let them ruin the meta world https://t.co/AePZywxzfZ
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) October 28, 2021
Heard there's a new #Meta in town.
— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) October 28, 2021
This is going to absolutely ruin the phrase "That's so meta."
— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahDispatch) October 28, 2021
Yesterday, upon the stair,
I Meta man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
I wish, I wish he’d go away— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) October 28, 2021
