Facebook is now Meta, according to the new name announced yesterday by its co-founder, CEO and largest shareholder, Mark Zuckerberg. The brand change comes at one of the company’s darkest moments, after revelations made by a former company executive. Meta, which is intended to be a step towards virtual worlds, however it was not always so. The domain previously belonged to Meta Productions, a project that was intended to be a community through which to make friends.
Facebook, the company that owns the most popular social network in the world, changes its image to become Meta, the parent company that encompasses what they are now, in addition to the social network itself, WhatsApp e Instagram, as well as other projects like Quest, Messenger u Horizon.
“It is time that we embrace a new brand to embrace everything we do, that reflects who we are.” Inspired by the metaverse, the name change announced by its founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, at the company’s annual event, is a bet on the virtual worlds that will dominate technology, in his opinion, at the end of this decade.
However, it does not seem by chance that this decision comes precisely in full reputational crisis of the firm, following the revelations made by a former executive of the company, which has revealed thousands of compromising documents on its operation.
Frances Haugen, who was a product manager at Facebook, argues that the company prioritizes, despite internal analysis and alarms, benefits over security and the interest of users.
Among the leaks, for example, stands out the lack of preparation of Facebook before the movement ‘Stop the Steal’, which played a fundamental role in the insurrection of January 6 in the Capitol, and how it used the platform to organize. Also that Zuckerberg’s company hardly dedicates resources to combat false information outside the US or, one of the most serious issues, that the company has known, at least since 2018, of the existence of human traffickers who used its platforms to operate. .
The metaverse wasn’t always
Meta’s domain (meta.com) already belongs to the tech giant, but it wasn’t always like that. Before becoming the homepage of Mark Zuckerberg’s new project, the address belonged to Meta Productions, which was described, “was formed in 2008 with the goal of creating community, promoting awareness and personal growth, and providing places where people can come together to meet other like-minded people.”
Meta’s website prior to being owned by Zuckerberg.
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With a similar story to Facebook’s, “the founder of Meta Productions realized upon graduating from college that there were no real places for people to meet other than bars, churches or other groups.” For this reason, this project “was his answer so that people of all races, orientations, religions or genders” could participate “in a community website that supports groups and discussions for each and every one of their interests or persuasions.”
As an additional objective, it could be read on the web, “the company participates in the production and promotion of workshops to increase communication between people and support personal growth.”
The price that Zuckerberg has been able to pay to acquire this domain is unknown, although, at the time, the company paid for that of Fb.com $ 8.5 million. An operation that the Spanish digital consultancy Meta could possibly benefit from, which hosts its website at an address that, quite possibly, it is interested in acquiring the technology giant.
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