Facebook changes name to Meta: news summary
Headlines
- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announces that the company will change its name to Meta and unveiled a new virtual reality based platform, the Metaverse.
- Critics accuse Facebook of trying to divert attention away from news that Instagram is extremely harmful to teenagers.
- Zuckerberg on Meta's future: "Over time, I hope that we are seen as a metaverse company and I want to anchor our work and our identity on what we're building towards,"
- Metaverse, a virtual reality based social media platform, may not be launched for five years as the technology must be developed.
Facebook name change: memers react
In the wake of Facebook's announcement that it is changing its name to Meta, memers have quickly set about giving the movea thorough lampooning. For example:
Are Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp changing their names to Meta?
Mark Zuckerberg has announced that Meta is Facebook's new name, but the company says Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp will retain their present identities.
Meta: Why is Facebook changing its name and what does Metaverse mean?
Following Thursday's announcement by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg that his company is to change its name to ‘Meta’, AS journalist Maite Knorr-Evans takes a look at the reasons for the decision.
Many warn that while Facebook's name is new, it should not be trusted
Over the last decade, various Congressional investigations have been made into Facebook's practices. Each time, executives are hauled in front of Congress, but little ever changes. For that reason, CNET tells viewers not to trust the company even though they claim to be taking the organization in a new direction.
Are Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp changing their names to Meta?
Facebook announced on Thursday in a virtual conference that the company is going through a rebranding and is changing its name. According to Meta, Facebook company’s new name, there will be no walls.
The company would like to move forward in building the next chapter, but Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp are not changing their names to Meta.
How did Mark Zuckerberg's annoncement impact the stock price of Facebook?
Facebook stock closed higher today after the name change announcement was made. It started today at $310, reached a daily high around 2:30 at $324, and closed at $316.
What do we know about the Metaverse so far?
CNET compiled all the information announced about the forthcoming "metaverse" during CEO Mark Zuckerberg's key note address at a virtual reality conference today.
Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shares her thoughts on the Facebook name change
AOC tweeted her reaction to Mark Zuckerberg's announcement today calling the company a "cancer" and a threat to democracy. The Congresswomen has faced off with the CEO in Congress, often asking him questions related to how his platforms could do a better job to limit hate speech and the spread of misinformation.
Right wing extreamism alive and well on Facebook
As Facebook faced decreased user activity in the United States it had little incentive or obligation to limit the use of the platform by white supremacists and right wing conspiracy theorists.
NBC found that ten groups on Facebook dedicated to the Qanon conspiracy had over a million members, with other groups bringing the total to an estimated three million members. The reporting showed how Facebook actually helped to grow the memberships of these groups through "its recommendations feature, powered by a secret algorithm that suggests groups to users seemingly based on interests and existing group membership."
Report Judd Legum tweets an excerpt from an interview Ben Thompson conducted with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg where he mentioned that a "killer use case" for the metaverse would be that users could send text messages in the presence of others without anyone noticing:
"You're going to have glasses and you're going to have something like EMG on your wrist and you're going to have able to have a message threat going on when you're in the middle of a meeting of doing something else and no one else is even going to notice."
While killer for Mr. Zuckerberg, teachers may have other opinions..
Are Instagram and Facebook harmful to young people?
Late this summer, a Facebook whistler blower leaked company research showing they were aware of the damaging impacts its platform has on teenagers. However, this only confirmed what many social scientists had been saying for close to a decade.
A 2017 report conducted by the Royal Society for Public Health in the United Kingdom highlighted the growing body of literature "linking social media use and depression in young people, with studies showing that increased use is associated with significantly increased odds of depression."
Read our full coverage for how Facebook has responded to the leak.
Facebook use declines among younger users
While the social media giant has continued to add new users, the number of daily users has decreased significantly in the US over the last five years.
Younger users, who tend to use social media for more hours each day, have been drifting away from Facebook, and in 2021 the company reported that the number of new accounts created by teens had dropped for the first time.
This week, Bloomberg reported that "The number of young adults on Facebook in the U.S. has declined 2% since 2019, and is expected to continue falling by an additional 4% over the next two years." Facebook executives say that they do not have a good handle on exactly what is driving these users away, but many speculate that it could relate to the rise of other platform like TikTok.
The future of Facebook
Reuters reports on how Facebook's name change will guide the company moving forward. In addition to the name change, the social media giant will replace their well known thumbs up logo with a blue infinity sign.
Daily Show with Trevor Noah "mocks" Meta announcement
The Daily Show took Mark Zuckerberg to task by highlighting that the change to the companies name does not erase the ways Facebook has helped to foster extremism and white supremacy.
Watch Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's keynote at VR Conference
During his keynote address at a virtual reality conference he spoke to the perks of the metaverse, which he claims will be a fully immersive social experience. Rather than lookign connecting through a screen, people will be able to feel like they are really together.
When will the Metaverse be launched?
Meta has estimated that the technology needed to launch the virtual reality universe could take between five to ten years to develop. However, when making his anouncement today, Zuckerberg provided images of what the platform could look like.
Many mock Mark Zuckerberg on Twitter after Meta announcment
Many memes have circualted that poke fun at the CEO for his creation of a new universe where he is not scrutinized for privacy law violations.
Meta to begin releasing tech that can be used for its virtual reality based platform
Meta is moving into the smart technology sphere and is expected to make its entrance into the market with the release of a smart watch, 'The Milan.' The Verge has reported that a new photo of the watch acquired by Bloomberg has a camera, whereas before the company had said it would not have photographic capabilities.
Meta releases vague video about the name change shortly after the announcement was made. Facebook, which has seen a decrease in use over the last few years is desperate to reinvent themselves -- enter the Metaverse.
Senator Ed Markey bashes Facebook in tweet
The Senator from Massachusetts did not parse words on Thursday when he took to Twitter to call attention to Facebook's inability to deal with many of social and political issues the platform has caused.
Meta: Why is Facebook changing its name and what does Metaverse mean?
Today's biggest story is news from Facebook that it will change its name to Meta.
Facebook, now Meta, has slowly acquired other social media platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp and is now used by over a third of the global population each day.
Zuckerberg spoke to the name change saying that it was time for the company “to adopt a new company brand to encompass everything that we do, to reflect who we are and what we hope to build."
For more on the change and details on the Metaverse, read our full coverage.
Hello and welcome to our live coverage on Facebook's decision to change its name to Meta. Today, CEO Mark Zuckerberg told the media during a virtual conference that the change is being made in an attempt “to adopt a new company brand to encompass everything that we do, to reflect who we are and what we hope to build."
We will be taking a look at the reactions from politicians, celebrities, and users, as well as providing details on the Metaverse -- the virtual reality platform being developed by the company.
Additionally, we will be reporting on additional details on the emerging scandal over leaked Facebook reports that show the company knew about many of the harmful effects its products had on users, especially minors.