Amid controversies, Facebook changes corporate name to Meta

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• • Facebook’s rebranding exercise is an activity to shift gears from just being known as a social networking platform
• • The new changes come after a series of negative stories about Facebook, based on documents leaked by an ex-employee

On Thursday, Facebook announced that it would change its corporate name to Meta as a part of a strategic shift to emphasize the company’s efforts to shift gears away from being known as just a social media company, which is currently embroiled in multiple controversies.

At the company’s Connect event CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company’s new name will be Meta. “We are a company that builds technology to connect. Together, we can finally put people at the center of our technology. And together, we can unlock a massively bigger creator economy,” he said.

Zuckerberg owns the Twitter handle @meta (whose tweets are protected as of this writing) and meta.com, which now redirects to a welcome page on Facebook that outlines the changes.

The new changes come after a series of negative stories about Facebook, based on documents leaked by an ex-employee, who has accused the company of putting "profits over safety".

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Last week, the company’s critics reacted to leaked reports on Facebook’s rebranding plans, terming the exercise as a distraction from its recent scandals and controversy.

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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.

Meanwhile, the company unveiled a new sign at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, replacing its thumbs-up "Like" logo with a blue infinity shape.

It intends to start trading its shares under the new stock ticker MVRS from 1 December.

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