Facebook new name Meta mercilessly mocked online

Social media users have wasted no time giving Facebook’s rebranding a big thumbs down with the new name mercilessly mocked online.

Social media users have given a big thumbs down to Facebook’s new name Meta.

The rebrand was announced during the company’s annual Connect conference where CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other executives talked about their plans for the “metaverse” and AR/VR features.

During the event, Mr Zuckerberg said the Facebook name did not encompass everything the company was doing.

“From now on, we are going to be metaverse first, not Facebook first,” Mr Zuckerberg said.

Facebook’s announcement comes as the social media giant faces a torrent of criticism.

‘I thought it was fake’

Social media reacted with incredulity to the new name.

Tressie McMillan Cottom wrote on Twitter, “Honest to god thought this was satire. Honest to god. This is the kind of pseudonym they give tech companies in Hallmark movies because it’s so ridiculously fake.”

Facebook becoming Meta is officially the term "metaverse" going from a formerly cool/scary sci-fi thing to a full-on meme and there is no going back

It was already well on its way before this, but this is without question the final nail

— Paul Tassi (@PaulTassi) October 28, 2021

Facebook changing its name to Meta is kinda like when Prince changed his name to a symbol, only when Prince did it, the glyph wasn't synonymous with world ruination and, ultimately, with delete. Shorter version, it's like Kanye going to Ye when it really should be Nay.

— Lesley Abravanel (@lesleyabravanel) October 28, 2021

Mark Zuckerberg announces Facebook's new name, Meta.

‘Different name, same threat’

Many were disappointed that Facebook appeared to be trying to rebrand itself but were not focused on changing the issues within the company.

Earlier this month, whistleblower Frances Haugen testified before Congress and claimed that the company “put their astronomical profits before people”.

More recently, a treasure trove of internal documents from Haugen dubbed The Facebook Papers were provided to dozens of news outlets.

Pod Save America co-host Dan Pfeiffer slammed the change, writing on Twitter, “This entire Facebook Meta sh*tshow has real signs of a company where no one has the guts or cache to tell Mark Zuckerberg his ideas are embarrassingly stupid.”

Facebook critics pounced last week on a report that leaked the rebranding plans, arguing the company was aiming to distract from recent scandals and controversy.

Instead of Facebook changing its policies to protect children and our democracy it has chosen to simply change its name to Meta. Different name, same threat to our nation.

— (((DeanObeidallah))) (@DeanObeidallah) October 28, 2021

am I the only one who heard of Facebook's name change and immediately thought 'meta' world peace? lol

— Rachel A DeMita (@RADeMita) October 28, 2021

So…don’t fix the problems…just change the name and move on?

— MM Wilson (@ememwilson123) October 28, 2021

Acronyms

The word “meta” is defined as “showing or suggesting an explicit awareness of itself or oneself as a member of its category”.

But many people instead thought of it as an acronym, including “Mark Evading Tax Accountability” and “Misinformation Exemplified To All”.

META: Mark Evading True Accountability

— Rick Horowitz (@Rick_Horowitz) October 28, 2021

Best jokes

The puns have also been flying thick and fast.

Brandy Jensen quipped, “this all happened because zuckerberg never meta girl until college.”

Yesterday, upon the stair,
I Meta man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
I wish, I wish he’d go away

— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) October 28, 2021

this all happened because zuckerberg never meta girl until college

— Brandy Jensen (@BrandyLJensen) October 28, 2021

Mark Zuckerberg And the Metaverse of Madness? #Facebook#Meta

— Chris Frye (@cfryenewsguy) October 28, 2021

"... the new name is meta," zuckerberg said, throwing a smoke bomb and hoping everyone assumed facebook's problems would just disappear. "meta," he repeated. pic.twitter.com/nek8Kd9v1B

— Oliver Willis (@owillis) October 28, 2021

Facebook is now Meta, as in "I just META nice young white nationalist who told me to vote Trump, hate foreigners, and never get vaccinated, because the government is just trying to put a chip in my head."

— Mr. Newberger (@jeremynewberger) October 28, 2021

I don’t have a Meta joke because I am totally exhausted by the last month of dealing with awful, terrible, no good policy proposals in response to Facebook’s lack of transparency and corporate responsibility.

— Jeff Kosseff (@jkosseff) October 28, 2021

“Meta: We’re committed to change*.”

*-ing our name so when people try to accuse us of purposely spreading stressful and hateful content, we can say that was Facebook, not Meta.

— Tom Fawkes (@TomFawkes) October 28, 2021

Meta World Peace brought to you by Facebook. Expect disinformation, radicalization, abuse of data and privacy, assaults on democracy, with a high chance of the occasional genocide --- but this time with the help of virtual reality! Experience the chaos in real time!

— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) October 28, 2021

Critics say ‘real issue’ overlooked

An activist group calling itself The Real Facebook Oversight Board has warned that major industries like oil and tobacco had rebranded to “deflect attention” from their problems.

“Facebook thinks that a rebrand can help them change the subject,” the group said last week, adding the “real issue” was the need for oversight and regulation.

Facebook has just announced plans to hire 10,000 people in the European Union to build the “metaverse,” with Mr Zuckerberg emerging as a leading promoter of the concept.

Rather than fix the problem that is killing young women and children who are being bullied @Facebook is simply going to change their name and re-brand.

Everything we put in this video is tragically true.pic.twitter.com/CdgJds84Ww

— Don Winslow (@donwinslow) October 20, 2021

Before Facebook even thinks about expanding or changing their name, they need to slow down and try to rectify the damage they've done.

If Mark Zuckerberg won’t commit to doing that, he needs to resign and let someone else lead. Either way, we clearly need robust new regulation.

— Ahmed Baba (@AhmedBaba_) October 24, 2021

Two years ago, I really thought we needed to break up Facebook.

Today, I really really really think we need to break up Facebook.

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) October 27, 2021

Facebook has been hit by major crises previously, but the current view behind the curtain of the insular company has fuelled a frenzy of scathing reports and scrutiny from US regulators.

“Good faith criticism helps us get better, but my view is that what we are seeing is a co-ordinated effort to selectively use leaked documents to paint a false picture of our company,” Mr Zuckerberg said in an earnings call on Monday.

The Washington Post last month suggested that Facebook’s interest in the metaverse is “part of a broader push to rehabilitate the company’s reputation with policymakers and reposition Facebook to shape the regulation of next-wave internet technologies.”

Google rebranded itself as Alphabet in a corporate reconfiguration in 2015, but the online search and ad powerhouse remains its defining unit despite other operations such as Waymo self-driving cars and Verily life sciences.

— with AFP

Originally published as Facebook new name Meta mercilessly mocked online