Just hours after the global head of safety at Facebook testified in front of a British parliamentary committee Thursday, company CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the company will be changing its name to Meta. The video above shows clips from Zuckerberg’s announcement, as well as the testimony in London.
It’s important to note the name change applies to the whole Facebook Inc. company, not the social media app.
“Building our social media apps will always be an important focus for us. But right now, our brand is so tightly linked to one product, that it can’t possibly represent everything that we’re doing today, let alone in the future,” Zuckerberg said. “Over time, I hope that we’re seen as a metaverse company and I want to anchor our work and our identity on what we’re building towards.”
Zuckerberg says the name change from Facebook to Meta reflects the company’s commitment to developing the new surround-yourself technology known as the “metaverse”.
“From now on, we’re going to be metaverse first, not Facebook first. That means that over time you won’t need to use Facebook to use our other services,” Zuckerberg said. “As our new brands start showing up and our products, I hope that people come to know the Meta brand and the future that we stand for.”
However, critics see Facebook changing its name to Meta as an attempt to distance itself from the “Facebook papers”, which include thousands of pages of internal company documents obtained by whistleblower Frances Haugen.
“Facebook is the world’s social media platform and they are being accused of creating something that is harmful to people and society,” marketing consultant Laura Ries said. “They can’t walk away from the social network with a new corporate name and talk of a future metaverse.”
In her Thursday testimony, Facebook Head of Global Safety Antigone Davis disagreed with Haugen’s claim that Facebook is amplifying hate.
“I cannot say that we’ve never recommended something that you might consider hate. What I can say is that we have AI that’s designed to identify hate speech,” Davis said. “Our AI is not perfect. It’s something that we’re continuing to always improve.”
Haugen testified in front of the same committee earlier this week.
