Facebook has rebranded itself “Meta,” the company said on Thursday, in a rebrand that focuses on its ambitions building the “metaverse,” a shared virtual environment that it bets will be the next big societal cancer… er, computing platform.
Elizabeth Culliford and Sheila Dang for Reuters:
The name change comes as the world’s largest social media company battles criticisms from lawmakers and regulators over its market power, algorithmic decisions and the policing of abuses on its platforms.
The metaverse, a term first coined in a dystopian novel three decades ago and now attracting buzz in Silicon Valley, refers broadly to the idea of a shared virtual environment which can be accessed by people using different devices.
The company, which has invested heavily in augmented and virtual reality, said the change would bring together its different apps and technologies under one new brand. It said it would not change its corporate structure.
The company will also stop using the Oculus branding for its VR headsets, instead calling them “Meta” products.
This year, the company created a product team focused on the metaverse and it recently announced plans to hire 10,000 employees in Europe over the next five years to work on the effort.
The name change amounts to slapping a fresh coat of paint on a defaced brand name, says Rebecca Biestman, chief marketing officer of Reputation.com.
“It’s dystopian, the worst of all names. If we don’t trust them in the real world, why would we in the virtual world?” Kirsten Martin, professor of technology ethics at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, told MarketWatch.
“Seriously? Facebook is trying to distract journalists and policy makers from the whistleblower’s evidence of irresponsible management decisions and potentially criminal behavior,” venture capitalist Roger McNamee, author of “Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe,” told MarketWatch. “If they change the organizational structure, it will be to protect Mark Zuckerberg from accountability for the harms committed by his company under his leadership.”
MacDailyNews Take: Hold the “World Peace,” which is not a name befitting a societal cancer.
(Yes, we know World Peace‘s surname is “Metta” with two t’s.) Facebook Meta has nothing whatsoever to do with world peace; quite the contrary.
Or perhaps Zuckerberg’s lockstep minions misspelled “Meat,” after how he views and treats his customers?
Zuckerberg: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard
Zuckerberg: Just ask
Zuckerberg: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SSNs
Zuckerberg: People just submitted it.
Zuckerberg: I don’t know why.
Zuckerberg: They “trust me”
Zuckerberg: Dumb fucks
(Instant messages sent by Mark Zuckerberg during Facebook’s early days, reported by Business Insider in May 2010.)
All of these “social media” platforms – Twitter, Parler, Facebook – are cancers on society. They are clearly eating society from the inside out. There’s something unsavory within human nature that “digital distance” amplifies to the point of disgust.
If you quit these cancers you will quickly realize what they are and what they do. You will be happier and healthier to have excised them from your life.
We haven’t had personal Twitter or Facebook accounts for many years now. And very happily so. — MacDailyNews, January 9, 2021
Facebook is to privacy as Chernobyl is to nuclear power. — MacDailyNews, February 3, 2021
If you trust Mark Zuckerberg to be the keeper of your photos, contacts, political views, religious beliefs, etc., you’re batshit insane. — MacDailyNews, May 23, 2018
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