“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.” Or in this case, replace “a rose” with “Facebook” and “sweet” with “sour.”
In a grand attempt at corporate rebranding, Facebook has reshuffled into a parent company known as Meta. The name Meta, which was announced at Connect 2021 by Mark Zuckerberg, is derived from the concept of the metaverse, a platform that allows people to connect virtually.
This renaming follows years of Facebook being a widely controversial company. The technology giant has managed to implement controversial algorithms into its social media apps, allow for the theft of millions of users’ data, involve itself in multiple eye-raising mergers and acquisitions, and ultimately breach the three cardinal rules of ethical tech (as presented in my last three columns). In the past weeks, former Facebook data scientist and recent whistleblower, Frances Haugen, has leaked thousands of Facebook internal documents and testified before Congress, claiming that Facebook “harms children, sows division and undermines democracy in pursuit of breakneck growth and ‘astronomical profits,’” according to NPR. To be honest, with this amount of sullying controversy, I’d want to change my name too.
While I’m not the biggest fan of Facebook (and the decision to rebrand), I must admit that the new features that Meta plans to produce are extremely exciting. Zuckerburg’s vision of virtual reality and other immersive digital technologies succeeding the mobile internet seems like something straight out of a sci-fi movie. But critics are skeptical of how innovative these features will actually be, or if they’ll actually transpire.
Despite the mixed buzz around renaming, I do believe that renaming was a smart decision for Facebook. From a demographic perspective, rebranding to Meta could potentially change Facebook’s “boomer-oriented” image to one that appeals to younger generations through virtual reality. From a regulatory standpoint, Facebook is already under high scrutiny with its current algorithms, data practices, and mergers and acquisitions. And perhaps, while regulators are scrambling to divvy out fines and court cases, it gives Facebook just enough leeway to slip into new spaces which have not been slammed with heavy regulation yet, like AR/VR.
But in the end, renaming does not equal rebranding. While Facebook has attempted to distance itself from the name Facebook, its technologies continue to remain controversial and its leadership has remained unchanged. In fact, I believe that the best way for Facebook to truly rebrand and distance itself from its controversial past is for Zuckerberg to pass the baton of either Facebook or Meta to someone else. (Although knowing Zuckerberg’s past, I am confident that he’d want to remain top dog.) Furthermore, I am struggling to see how renaming produces isolation between Facebook products. In an interview with The Verge, Zuckerberg said, “You’ll have a Facebook account and you’ll have an Instagram account. You’ll also have an account with the company that’s the top level. So that way if you don’t want to use Facebook, you don’t have to.” And yet, Meta is still Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp are still overseen by the same company that oversaw them before, and absolutely nothing changes. While you may not have an account with Facebook, the social media app, you may still choose to have an account under Meta, which bears the same risks of using Facebook.
Personally, it’ll take me a long time to truly acknowledge Facebook as Meta. First, in a literal sense, we’re in that weird grey area where it’s too early to permanently refer to Facebook as Meta because it’s still new. Second, in a practical sense, many people will simply prefer to use the original nomenclature, just how many still refer to Alphabet as Google. Also, the switch to me seems like an effort to rebrand without actually acknowledging or fixing any fundamental issues. Rebranding to Meta seems like a sad attempt to distance itself from past issues, but then again, it wouldn’t be Facebook if they didn’t take the easy way out.
Technically Speaking is an Opinion culture column used to discuss topics relating to technology, such as pop culture, trends, social media, or other relevant subject matter.
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