Facebook is no more! That's the good news here. The bad news is that the social media giant hasn't been shutdown or disbanded because of any fallout from the literally everything involving that company over the years. No, instead the company will now be called Meta.
Yes, Meta. Facebook is now Meta.
Earlier this month, a report was released suggesting that Facebook was interested in rebranding itself to try to separate itself from just being seen as "a social media company." Cut to today and the Facebook Connect that took place earlier in the day where we had Mark Zuckerberg trying to explain how the company is more than a social media company. They are instead focusing on... the Metaverse.
I'm sure today's name change announcement also serves as a nice distraction, and a way to distance themselves, from the company's most recent controversies. Those being the documents and insight shared by Facebook whistleblowers, an investigation by the FTC, lawsuits, the way in which Facebook tends to turn a blind eye towards the spread of disinformation and extremist groups, how the site's algorithms pushed hate, and the list just goes on for a few miles more.
Zuckerberg said today that Meta will be a company that focuses on the metaverse and the advancement of future technologies. Facebook owned social media services such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp will now become brands under the Meta name. It's not totally unlike when Google became Alphabet yet still kept "Google" as a subsidiary.
One bright spot announced with this name change is the fact that in the future, customers will not have to use Facebook in order to use its Metaverse products. This means that a Facebook account may soon not be required in order to even use devices like the Oculus Quest 2.
