Facebook Renames Itself Meta
Summary
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 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. “I’ve been thinking a lot about our identity” with this new chapter, Mr. Zuckerberg said, speaking at a virtual event to showcase Facebook’s technological bets of the future.