According to a source with intimate knowledge of the situation, Facebook is going to alter its corporate name next week to reflect its focus on establishing the metaverse.
The upcoming name change, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg hopes to discuss at the company’s annual Connect conference on October 28th but could be announced sooner, is designed to signify the internet giant’s aim to be known for something other than social media and all of its associated evils. The makeover would most likely present the blue Facebook app as one of many products managed by a parent business that also oversees Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus, and other companies. A Facebook spokeswoman declined to comment for this article.
Facebook currently has over 10,000 staff working on consumer devices such as augmented reality glasses, which Zuckerberg expects will become as common as smartphones. In July, he told The Verge that “we will effectively move from people seeing us as largely a social media company to being a metaverse company” over the next several years.
A renaming might also help to further distinguish Zuckerberg’s futuristic work from the tremendous criticism Facebook is presently facing over its current social platform.
The move would come at a time when Facebook is facing a barrage of questions from lawmakers and regulators around the world about its content moderation practises and the harms associated with its platforms, with internal documents leaked by a whistleblower forming the basis for a Senate hearing last week.
According to a Facebook spokeswoman, the business does not “comment on rumour or speculation.”
“I expect people to shift from perceiving us primarily as a social media company to seeing us as a metaverse company in the coming years,” Zuckerberg remarked in July. “The metaverse is, in many respects, the pinnacle of social technology.”
