Facebook has announced a rebranding process that would involve changing its name to be in tandem with its focus on creating a metaverse.
The name changing would be immediate according to Finance Yahoo. It was also stated that the rebranding of the social media giant has much to do with Horizon Worlds, its unreleased social virtual reality world.
The social network will retain the Facebook branding but will be under a new parent company, along with Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus.
Making Facebook a metaverse company has been a long desire for Mark Zuckerberg. At the beginning of the year, a team was formed for this purpose and also a few days ago, the company talked about adding 10,000 “high-skilled” jobs across the European Union over the next five years to build its virtual and augmented reality experiences. Not leaving out the release of the Ray-Ban Stories augmented reality smart glasses in September.
Also there are speculations that the name change is triggered by the recent investigations Facebook is facing and the recent flood of bad press. Frances Haugen, one time executive of the company who turned whistleblower had recently accused Facebook of choosing “profit over safety”. An accusation she backed up with documents submitted to the Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Zuckerberg adamantly denied this.
Haugen testified at a Senate hearing in October concerning the research she says proves that the social network repeatedly lied about its platform, including the “efficacy of its artificial intelligence systems, and its role in spreading divisive and extreme messages.”
The name change might just be a distraction from Facebook.