Facebook Renames Itself Meta
The New York Times
The social network, under fire for spreading misinformation and other issues, said the change was part of its bet on a next digital frontier called the “metaverse.”
SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook rose to prominence over the past two decades with some of the world’s most recognizable branding: A big blue letter F.
No longer. On Thursday, the social networking giant took an unmistakable step toward an overhaul, de-emphasizing Facebook’s name and rebranding itself as Meta. The change comes with a new logo designed like an infinity-shaped symbol, slightly askew, almost like a pretzel. Facebook, Instagram and other apps will remain, but under the Meta umbrella.
The move punctuates how Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive, plans to refocus his Silicon Valley company on what he sees as the next digital frontier, which is the unification of disparate digital worlds into something called the metaverse. At the same time, renaming Facebook may help distance the company from the many social networking controversies it is facing, including how it spreads hate speech and misinformation.
