Facebook is expected to announce its new name on Thursday. But that alone will not be enough to restore the battered reputation. At a time when the social media group is being pinned down by whistleblowers and politicians alike, CEO Mark Zuckerberg is daring to escape: He wants his strategy beyond social networks and messenger services to the metaverse of the virtual and augmented reality and at the same time change the name of the company.
With the new name, Zuckerberg wants to show that Facebook is more than the social network of the same name, the photo platform Instagram and the messenger WhatsApp. Like the other tech companies Google, Apple and Microsoft, Facebook also wants to create a larger ecosystem and thus exert an even greater influence. In addition, Zuckerberg hopes to shed the negative image of Facebook.
In the past, other companies have changed their names to distance themselves from their controversial products or origins. Philip Morris used the artificial name Altria in the USA to cover up his cigarette business. The Blackwater mercenaries suddenly traded as Academi. We can be curious what Zuckerberg will come up with for his new metaverse.
One thing is clear: the old problems will not go away with the new name. Facebook, which sets the rules of discussion on the Internet for almost half of the world’s population, is extremely problematic. The allegations range from influencing the election to disinformation about vaccines.
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The former Facebook manager Frances Haugen had also revealed that Facebook knows about the negative effects on young users of the photo platform Instagram, but is hiding it because it would be bad for business. In addition, documents published by her show that the group deliberately tolerates it when celebrities violate its rules of use.
Facebook not only needs to change its name, but also the way it does business. Otherwise the users will run away at some point, as has long been the case with younger people in the case of Facebook. But maybe the name change and the change in strategy are already an admission that Zuckerberg no longer sees the future in Facebook anyway.
More: Mark Zuckerberg gets lost in media criticism – he harms himself and Facebook with it